
LIFE AND TIMES 



SAMUEL GORTON 
















f/xvy 



-^ 






^<*S* '^V ^A .^ 









'? 










trC^ 



o 










Class 



t^^^ 



Book __J3-7/ 
Copyii^htN° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE LIFE AND TIMES 

OF 

SAMUEL GORTON 



THE FOUNDERS AND THE FOUNDING OF 
THE REPUBLIC 

A SECTION OF 

EARLY UNITED STATES HISTORY 

AND 

A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF PROVIDENCE 
AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS 

IN 

THE NARRAGANSETT INDIAN COUNTRY 

NOW 

THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND 

I ^92 — 1 6 z 6 — 1 677 — 1 687 

With a geaealogy of Samuel Gorton's descendants to the present time 



CJompiled from varioua accounts, histories, letters, and published and unpublished records 

By ADELOS GORTON, 

Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the New York Genealogical and Bio 
fraphical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the American Academy of Political 
and Social Science, etc. Author of " Bible Prophecies," "Symbolic Langua?e." "Anti- 
quated Words," "Dictionary of the Bible," "Dictionary of Religious Sects," "Short 
Stories," etc. Collaborator with Hampton L. Carson, LL. D., in the preparation of 
" The History of the Supreme Court of the United States." 



PHILADELPHIA 

1907 






\ L!a «/*.?! Y of congress] 



I wo Copies Recelvod 
OCT T ISOf 

t tiL.'.6S -^ XXc., No, 



COPY B. 



.J 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1907, 

By ADELOS GORTON 

In fiho Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



QEORGE S. FERGUSON OO., 

PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPER8, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



That all the principal facts belonging to the history of Samuel Gorton 
and his companions and the affairs with which they were associated, 
that are necessary to an understanding of them and a correct judgment 
regarding them, have never been given, alone, not with others, in one 
unbroken collection, and the desire expressed by many that these truths 
from every source should together shed their light upon these subjects, 
are the reasons above others that have prompted their gathering and 
issuing in this volume. 

In this an essay is not intended, nor a discussion of subjects or opin- 
ions, but the setting in their order before the reader the various perti- 
nent accounts and records ; some of which when alone are misleading, 
others which explain the truth with fairness, many of which were 
written to defame the men and decry the measures they upheld, few of 
which were written to extoll them, and many of which, recording but 
events, have long laid unread and unpublished. We have in this fol- 
lowed the originals of the writings, quoting in full as many of them 
as were not precluded from this by their great length or the amount of 
their irrelevant matter; then endeavoring to as closely bide their phrase 
as permitted by the required abridgment of them. We have been spar- 
ing with our words of either praise or blame for those who have taken 
part in the transactions; giving rather the facts to show whatever is 
due them. 

While a satisfied dominating people learn late by their experience, 
the student and observer so far transcends them in knowledge that his 
attainments often are, as such, beyond their recognition And, too, from 
the general uncertainty, the reasonable suspicion, and worthy caution 
regarding untried things, the unselfish motives of some men have been 
misunderstood and the wisdom of their efforts unperceived by the peo- 
ple of the times in which they lived. If the members of all religious 
societies were not intolerant towards others who thought differently 
from them, they might, under then the political incitements, have 
become intolerant toward them upon gaining the strength to rule them. 
The weakness and consequent sufferings of some of them helped them 
earlier than others to see the wrong of punishing to correct belief and 
earlier to discern that the remedy was in the separation of Church and 
State. 

The records of all the Colonies show that the Providence Colony had 
a larger share of troubles than any other colony ; that the reason for this 
" larger share " was her storming by all the other colonies, that " her 
stormmg " arose from two inciting conditions. These " inciting con- 
ditions " were— the first, the prospect of the other colonies that her 
lands, located and inhabited without a charter, might be obtained by 
them. The second, the desire of the other colonies that her inhabitants 
outcasts and refugees now aggrieved and unrestrained accusers might 
be again brought under their jurisdiction for punishment 

(iii) 



iv INTRODUCTION. 

Ti:e records of events in the Providence Colony show that the troubles 
there were principally from two sources — one operating from without, 
the other aided from without, but operating from within. 

They show that the Providence Colony was founded and upheld and 
the interests of its people served principally by two loyal men, their fol- 
lowers and successors — one by his procuring the place and settling it, 
the other by his defending it, and as a consequence maintaining it. 

They show that the Colony was nearly dismembered by the internal 
dissensions created principally by two disloyal men, subjects and agents 
of other colonies, their followers and successors ; one by his fraudu- 
lently claiming the lands, the other by his persistently asserting, m 
opposition to the will of the people, his authority to rule them. 

The greatest of these causes of turbulence was that regarding the 
lands. And for the possession of the lands, really more than for their 
religious opinions, the loyal people and rightful owners of the lands 
were assailed with the then political weapon of vile heresy and otherwise 
abused. 

During the earlier period of this history the printing press was an 
institution of only the then powerful colony of Massachusetts; and not 
until about one hundred years after was a printing press established 
in the smaller and weaker colony of Providence and Rhode Island — 
unfortunately long after much of the best of the writings of the later 
colony were destroyed and the colonies' history, written by its enemies, 
had been in varied versions published and industriously spread through- 
out the land. Largely from this cause, all the men of those times who 
led in advancing the condition of their fellows in this colony have been 
the subjects of unlimited falsehood and calumny. Although men have, 
at every period since then, been assailed, there have been printing presses 
in every land, and many of them in the accused ones' hands, we 
therefore not left as were the early readers and later readers of this early 
history, dependent for information regarding men upon their enemies' 
accounts of them, but have the utterances of both their enemies and 
friends. Hov/ever, we rejoice that the odium which rested upon the 
founders of the Providence and Rhode Island Colony as a result of the 
disadvantages related has been by the gradual revelations of truth 
removed. 

The loyal sons and daughters of the State have ever honored and cher- 
ished, and their posterity will always hold in exalted remembrance, those 
who, by their unselfish love and labors for mankind, wrought out so 
much for us. 

Doctor Lewis George Janes, in a valuable article on Samuel Gorton, 
published in the May, 1898, number of the New England Magazine, 
writes : " The nineteenth century has furnished an Easter morning for 
many of the worthies of our earlier period. Buried beneath the dust of 
centuries, with the stones of prejudice and obliquy sealing the mouths 
of their sepulchres, they have awaited the potent touch of the angel of 
the new historical method to remove the obstructions, tear from their 
forgotten forms the dusty cerements of misunderstanding and neglect 
and reveal to the world the living realities of their self-sacrificing labors 
and the results which are our leading inheritance. 

To most readers, even the ordinary student of history, this work will 
be new and instructive, and, we trust, interesting. A. G. 

Philadelphia, Pa., July i, 1907. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 



CHAPTER I. 



Time, place and baptism of Gorton in Gorton, England — His education and re- 
ligious training — A clothier in London — Business transactions preparatory to 
leaving for the colonies — His wife Mary daughter of John Maplet — Landing 
•with his family in Massachusetts Colony — Laws prohibiting non-new-church- 
men from living in Massachusetts Colony — Banishment of Wheelright, Aspin- 
wall and others from Massachusetts — Gorton and Vassal settle in Plymouth 
Colony — Gorton volunteers in militia raised in response to Massachusetts col- 
onies' call for aid to suppress the Indian invasion — His opposition to the pro- 
posed laws — Important issues of the election — Vassal and others disqualified 
from voting — Prince of Massachusetts Colony made Governor of Plymouth 
Colony — Why the Massachusetts Colony chose Prince for Plymouth's Gov- 
ernor — The Rev. Dr. Chauncey's troubles in Plymouth — The Massachusetts 
methods under Prince adopted — Prince banishes Gorton from Plymouth Col- 
ony — Dissatisfaction of Plymouth people, and therefore fines and disfran- 
chisements — Vassal heads movement for religious toleration — Winslov/'s de- 
nunciation of Vassal's movement — How justice was administered by Prince at 
Plymouth — Gorton goes to Pocasset Aquidneck Island. 



CHAPTER II. 

The settlement of Pocasset Aquidneck Island — Magistrate Coddington deposed 
from office in Massachusetts — Deacon Aspinwall banished from Massachusetts 
— Rev. John Clark, Coddington, Aspinwall and others sign a compact for a 
new government — Coddington called to answer in the court at Boston — Clark, 
through Williams, obtains the island — Clark settles on the island — Coddington 
settles there over a month later — Mrs. Hutchinson leaves Boston — Her settle- 
ment upon the island — The Boston church disciplines Coddington and others 
— Coddington adds the Massachusetts order of Elders to his government — 
Coddington and his Elders left out of office at the succeeding election — Over- 
throw of the government of Elders — Coddington again removes, carries off the 
records, and starts another town and church government — Gorton and Hutch- 
inson organize a model civil government on the island — Hutchinson Gov- 
ernor and Chief Judge — Gorton Deputy Governor and Assistant Judge, and 
the first Quarterly Courts and the first Trial Juries in the colony — They change 
name of town to Portsmouth — Coddington makes propositions to restore him 
to government — He seeks a patent for the island — Gorton opposition to Cod- 
dington's return to government — Coddington writes to Winthrop and seeks 
aid — Desired help sent from Boston — The return of Coddington with his 
Elders and their usurping of the government — Massachusetts and Plymouth 
methods adopted — Anonymous accounts and what really happened at Ports- 
mouth — Coddington troops quell the disturbance — Gorton leaves the island — 
Clark and Linthal break from Coddington and join the liberal party — Dis- 
memberment of the church — Beginning of the Baptist Church — Lenthal's de- 
parture — The exodus from the island. 

(v) 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Coddington's and Benton's coquetry with the Massachusetts government — Moosh- 
asuck, or Providence, settled by Roger Williams- -He obtains written grants for 
it and for Aquidneck Island — He divides the land to please the objectors to his 
liberal policy — William Arnold lays large claims to lands — Inception of the 
fraudulent land claims, difficulties resulting from them and the inability to 
settle the disputes regarding the claims. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Gorton's arrival in Providence — Arnold's complaint — Gorton retires from Provi- 
dence to land in Papaquinapaug — The Arnold Pawtuxet claimants forge papers 
to further extend their land claims — They become subjects of Massachusetts 
to obtain for the enforcement of their claims that government's assistance — 
The Massachusetts government commissions Benedict Arnold to obtain from 
Miantinomi his submission and cession of the Narragansett lands to them — 
Miantinomi sells Occupesuatuxet to Greene — Providence notified by the Massa- 
chusetts government of their jurisdiction over them and cited to trial at 
Boston — Gorton replies to Massachusetts' notice to Providence — Gortoa buys 
Shawomet, or Warwick — its settlement, government and town orders. 



CHAPTER V. 

Williams departs from Providence for England to secure a charter — The 
Colonies' League — Massachusetts government orders their Captain-General 
to put the colony on a war basis — Their troops to move under the leadership 
of William Arnold against Greene and otliers at Providence, Pawtuxet and 
Occupasnetuxet to capture and bring them to Boston for trial — Miantinomi 
again brought by Arnold to the court at Boston, and again refuses them sub- 
mission or cession of his lands ; refuses to deny the sale of his lands to his 
friends — Two of Miantinomi's subjects seduced to submission to Massachu- 
setts— Shawomet settlers notified by the Massachusetts government of their 
jurisdiction over them and summoned to Boston for trial — Gorton's reply to 
the Massachusetts notice to Shawomet — Occupesuatuxet and Shawomet settlers 
notified by Massachusetts of their intended military advance upon them — 
Providence invaded by the Massachusetts troops — The settlers of Occupes- 
natuxet flee to Shawomet — Shawomet beseiged by Massachusetts soldiers — 
Massachusetts troops send to Boston for reinforcements — Captives sent to Bos- 
ton — Benedict and William Arnold commissioned by Massachusetts to seize those 
who escaped — The captives', Gorton and others, imprisonment in Massachu- 
setts — Their release and banishment by the Massachusetts court from Mas- 
sachusetts, from Providence and from their own Shawomet lands — They 
arrive upon the island — Island Aquidneck's name changed to Rhode Island. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Narragansett Nation — Extent of its domain — War and stratagem — Miantinomi 
captured and his sons slain — Denial by Massachusetts of the sachem's right 
to th<! land or to sell it to Greene, Gorton and Williams — Gorton intercedes for 
the life of Miantinomi — Miantinomi put to death and word justifying it sent 
to Cannonicus — Grief of the Narragansetts — The sachems send for Gorton to 
visit them — Gorton secures from them their submission and cession of their 
dominion — The Narragansetts called to answer for what they had done and 
their reply to Massachusetts — Cordial reception of Gorton by the people upon 
his return to the island — Gorton again chosen Maq;istrate — Gorton and others 
settle down on the island to abide the arrival of the charter — Political reunion 
of the church — Coddington writes to Winthrop of Gorton's adherents' opposi- 
tion to him and to Massachusetts — Coddington's attempt to deliver Gorton 
agaim to the Massachusetts court prevented by the island people. 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER VII. 

Williams arrives with the charter for government of mainland and island, all 
as " Providence Plantations " — Organization of government — Williams Gov- 
ernor, Clark Deputy Governor, Gorton Assistant and Judge — The people sub- 
scribe to the King and his laws under the charter — A code of laws for the 
government of the colony — Deputies, or Commissioners, sent from all the 
towns — imprisonment for debt abolished — Cannonicus again grants Narragan- 
sett lands (Wickford) to Williams — Williams leaves Providence, builds a 
Trading House on his grant and settles on it — Assembly of the chartered gov- 
ernment at Portsmouth — Movement to allot lands at Wickford and to return to 
Shawomet — Rival claims of Plymouth and Massachusetts — Arnold directed 
by Massachusetts to remove any who should settle — Coddington and his briefless 
court — His danger from the people — Massachusetts government attaches Prov- 
idence and Shawomet, and sends to bring the people to Boston — Massachu- 
setts begins war against the Narragansetts — Soldiers sent against them — Mes- 
sengers' and soldiers' repeated attempts to secure the Narragansetts' submis- 
sion and to bring their chieftains to Boston — Repeated failures of their mission 
■ — The messengers visit Williams at his Trading House, receive a letter from 
him and return to Boston — The Colleagued colonies declare war against the 
Narragansetts — Reasons fo/ the war ordered to be published — Three hun- 
dred troops and a fleet and other men for it ordered raised and a fort built upon 
Shawomet — Notice from Williams to Massachusetts of a treaty of neutrality 
entered into between the Narragansetts and the government of the Providence 
Plantations. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The August 9, 1645, Assembly of the Government of the Providence Planta- 
tions at Newport — Letter from the Assembly to Massachusetts — Their desire 
for civil government to preserve their lives and liberties caused them to pro- 
cure a charter — The Earl of Warwick recognizes and approves the organization 
of the government under the charter — Those in the government dare not yield 
themselves delinquent to answer at Massachusetts court — The government to 
employ messengers to prosecute the cause of the Providence Plantations before 
the government of England — Massachusetts claims to possess a prior charter 
for the Narragansett territory — Gorton chosen by the Assembly their Commis- 
s oner to England — Troops march against the Indians and Whites of the Prov- 
idence Plantations- — Gorton, about August 16, 1645, departs on his mission — 
Plymouth's forces opposite Providence — Army delayed while messengers are 
again sent to treat with the Narragansetts — The Narragansetts send for Wil- 
liams and Wickes to council with them — The conditions of peace with Massa- 
chusetts signed — The official notice, August 27, 1645, of the alleged patent for 
the Narragansett lands sent by Massachusetts to the Providence government. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The mortgages and deeds secured by the Athertons, Arnolds and other Massa- 
chusetts subjects for Narragansett, Shawomet and Providence lands — Provi- 
dence Plantations people subscribe to their chartered government — It grants 
them lands — The Massachusetts court meets October i, 1645, and grants Shaw- 
omet lands to their subjects — Brown, a Plymouth subject, forbids the Massachu- 
setts subjects to settle on it — Captain Cook sent to England to aid other agents 
there defend Massachusetts' actions — Vassal's religious toleration movement 
extends to Massachusetts — Gorton's departure from Manhattan — He, in Janu- 
ary, 1645-6, reaches England — His complaint to the Parliament Commissioners. 



CHAPTER X. 

The King's flight, April 27, 1646, from Oxford — Gorton publishes his complaint 
and the Narragansett Indians' submission and cession — The falsity of Massa- 
chusetts' claim of a patent for Narragansett exposed by the President of the 
Parliament Commission in open session — Parliament Commissioners' mandate 
to Massachusetts confirming their grant to Williams and commanding observ- 



iii CONTENTS. 

ance and obedience — The wisdom and moderation of Gorton petition com- 
mended — The Massachusetts English agent, Peters, sends for the Governor ot 
Massachusetts to come over and assist in overturning what Gorton had accom- 
plished — Coddington renders Massachusetts and Peters great assistance — 
Coddington's letter to Winthrop — He denies the freedom of the island to his 
opponents — Representatives of mainland and inland towns had joined the 
government of the Williams charter — Coddington still maintains his government ; 
derides liberty of conscience ; sends records and papers to Massachusetts for 
their English agents' use against the chartered government — Winslow sent 
by Massachusetts to England to assist Peters and others and to reply to Gorton 
— Mather terms Winslow an Hercules — His pre-eminent abilities — His other 
equipments — Favorable conditions for Massachusetts — A printing press at Cam- 
bridge, Mass. — A plethoria of Massachusetts books and writings — Winslow has 
a day appointed for an audience before the Parliament Commissioners. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The hearing before the Parliament Commissioners — Winslow's and Gorton's re- 
quests — The Parliament Commissioners refuse all of Winslow's requests and 
grant all of Gorton's — Winslow proceeds to have the Providence charter called 
in — Winslow again defeated — The Providence charter to stand — Massachu- 
setts commanded to not remove the people, but to assist and protect them — 
Gorton and Winslow correspondence — No further opposition from Winslov/ — 
Gorton leaves England for home. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

A union Assembly, May, 1647 — The Model Civil Government under English laws 
as first drawn up by Gorton and Hutchinson at Portsmouth on the island now 
agreed to by all the parties — All men privileged to " walk as their consciences 
persuaded them, in the name of Jehova their God " — Two governments — The 
Model Civil Government and the Judge and Elders Government contrasted — 
Coggershall made second President, or Governor, of the chartered govern- 
ment — Coddington, for third time left out of office, goes to Boston — War- 
wickers attempt to resettle at Warwick — Massachusetts sends Benedict Ar- 
nold and other of their officers to disperse them, and grants their lands to 
others — President Coggershall visits Warwick and interposes for his people. 



CHAPTER XHI. 

Gorton's return from England — He is detained by the Massachusetts government 
in Boston until after his government election is over — Coddington declared 
elected to the head of the Providence government — Providence government 
Assembly denounce the fraud, suspend Coddington, and choose and install Capt. 
Jerry Clark President of the Providence government — Coddington indicted for 
treason and his flight from the colony — Coddington offers himself and lands 
to the league of colonies — They refuse him — He offers himself and lands to 
Plymouth — Providerce and Gorton party successfully oppose him — Codding- 
ton's letter to Winthrop accounting his disgrace. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Assembly and election of May, 1649 — John Smith chosen President; Clark, 
Gorton, Sanford and Olney assistants : Williams Auditor — Deferred suits 
against Coddington — Nicholas Easton President — The government in com- 
plete order — Renewed aggressions and attempted subversion of the char- 
tered government with a view to the absorption of the Providence Plantation* 
by the other colonies — Massachusetts annexes Warwick and Pawtuxet to their 
territory — Winslow resigns from the service of Massachusetts — .A.rmed inva- 
sion of the Providence Plantations — Gorton chosen President of the Providence 
government — Coddington pretends to an English commission to govern — 



CONTENTS. ix 

Williams sent by the Providence government to Entjland — The secession of the 
island — Coddington assumes its government — The passage of Gorton's Anti- 
Slavery Act the first in America — Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants pose as Prov- 
idence, Pawtuxet and W^arwick Commissioners to assist Coddington — Their 
rump assemblies. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Word from Williams from England that no commission of government had been 
issued to Coddington — English councils order against Coddington pretensions 
to government, and order Providence government to care for the island — 
Coddington absents himself from the colony — The Coddington government 
maintain their organization and choose Sanford their President — An agreement 
effected for restoring the island to the chartered government — Williams re- 
turns Williams President — Leverett appointed agent for Massachusetts in 

England — Coddington returns to the island, his subscription to the Providence 
government and his destruction of the records — The choice of Gorton by 
Coddington and the Assembly as arbitrator of the difficulties besetting Cod- 
dington — The court condemns Harris, leader of the Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants, 
for treason. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Gorton's letters to Cromwell and to Clark defending the Quakers— Recording of 
the forged land title made by the Pawtuxet claimants— The Providence gov- 
ernment applies first to the King for a new charter of government — The 
Arnold-Pawtuxans delay Clark's commission from Providence government 
until after Winthrop, Jr., had secured the Connecticut charter of government- 
Petition of Warwick men to the King — Letter to the court of Massachusetts- 
New charter received — The King's order — The Narragansett Indian grant — 
The death of ex-President Smith. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Assembly under the new charter— Gorton named in it as one of the incorpo- 
rators — A Representative — Change of name from Providence to Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations — The King appoints Commissioners to settle the 
disputes of the colonies — Instructs them to see if the Narragansetts' sub- 
mission and cession secured by Gorton prove true— They confirm the Narragan- 
sett submission and cession — Gorton names the unsettled territory the King's 
Province — Samuel Gorton, Jr., appointed a magistrate in it — Commissioners 
declare all claims of the other colonies to lands within it to be void, and place 
it in the Rhode Island and Providence governments' keeping — They order the 
removal of Massachusetts subjects from it — Massachusetts court refuses to 
heed the orders of the King's Commissioners — The King commands the Gov- 
ernor and Council of Massachusetts to send representatives to answer in 
England 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The King's compliments in a letter to the government of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations — The Massachusetts court send ship-masts to the King 
in lieu of agents to answer before him — The Massachusetts people protest 
against the course of their magistrates — Pawtuxet claimants capture the Court 
of Trials — They protest against Williams and his opposition to them — Morton's 
scandalous book — Gorton's letter to Morton — Williams' letter to the Plymouth 
court — Gorton's letter to Governor Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The King Philip's War — The swamp battle — Capture of Philip's wife and son— 
The Narragansetts' extinction — Warwick destroyed — Providence and Paw- 
tuxet burned, and two of the family of Massachusetts ex-subject and Pawtuxet 
claimant slain. 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Massachusetts court unable to longer delay obedience to the King's com- 
mands — They send Stoughton and Buckley to England — Rhode Island Assembly 
choose Danford and Baily, of Newport, as agents to England — Their departure 
delayed pending the suits of the Pawtuxct claimants — Trial of the Pawtuxan 
claims and verdict in their favor — Warwick men appeal, and resolve to carry 
a petition to England — Gorton, Greene and Holden again chosen to lay a peti- 
tion before His Majesty — Gorton's death — Green and Holden depart immedi- 
ately with the petition — They procure from the King in council a stay of pro- 
ceedings — A powerful petition — Its presentation by the Warwick men to tne 
King — King orders the Massachusetts government to send other agents em- 
powered to negotiate a settlement and to repeal the obnoxious laws — They 
send Nov/ell and Richards — Quo-warranto issue summoning the corporation 
of Massachusetts to England — The Massachusetts charter pronounced void — 
King Charles the Second's death — King James' declaration under which the 
intolerant practices of the leagued colonies end. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Permanent return of Warwick people to their homes — The triumph of religious 
freedom and end of attempted subjugation of the Providence and Rhode Island 
lands and people — The adoption of their principles as the cardinal doctrine of 
the Nation — Closing events in Gorton's life — Honors accorded him — His char- 
acter and his teachings. 




SAML'EL GORTON'S HOMESTEAD, WARWICK. 



CHAPTER I. 

Tin,,, nlace and baptism of Gorton in Gorton, England— His education and re- 

Time, P'^" .^".°„''^^"^!J\thier in London— Business transactions preparatory to 

hgious train ng— Ac othierini^onoo ^ j^ ^f ^^^^ Maplet— Landing 

leaving for the ^^^^ "ch^s^tts Colons-Lais prohibiting non-new-church- 
with his family m Massachusetts ^^ °^y_3^„i3hment of Wheelright, Aspin- 
men from living J° ^^||^^Su3etts^^^ and Vassal settle in Plymouth 

wall and others from ^f ^achu.etts >fO"on a Massachusetts Col- 

Colony-Gorton volunteers m ^^^'ll^-l't::j::^n.s opposition to the pro. 
ony 5 call for ^'^ to suj^press x election— Vassal and others disqualihed 

posed la^vs— Important issues ottneeiec Governor of Plymouth 

ony— Dissatisfaction of Plymouth P^oP^^^'^^"^-^"^ toleration— Winslow's de- 
?nSo?Tf^v\lLirm^er^^^^^^^^^ filtered by Prince at 

Plymouth-Gorton goes to Pocasset Aquidneck Island. 

Samuel Gorton was born in the year 1592^ in t^\%t°^\°^^j?°';^°"/ 

then^djoining. but now included within the city of Manchester Eng- 

and- Where h s fathers had lived for many generations not unknown 

in the records of the heraldry of England.' At this place he was brought 

up and received his early education. -r- 1 j .c ,ir.rl^r tli^ 

During the receding davs of his minority England was under he 
rule of the Conformist King James. The canons drawn up by the 
Convocation of 1606 inculcated obedience^ to the monarch s reign 
deduced the origin of government from patriarchal blood declared that 
no one should be admftted to sacred orders without a title, denounced 
all liberal views, and pronounced anathemas on all who rejected the 
canons' teachings. These canons were maintained by the higner clergy 
who zealously lent themeslves to the support of the King's prerogative 
and to the shaping of everything to his views. The celebrated schools 
were under the control of persecuting Bishops. Laud was conspicuous 
in the universities, and so great was the corruption therein that many 
parents were discouraged from sending their children to them. The 
Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were set in opposition to the 
Parliament. Cambridge, as early as 1603, had passed a grace that 
whoever should oppose any part of the doctrine or discipline of the 
Church of England should be suspended from any degree to be taken. 
The University of Oxford pronounced a solemn decree that by the 
doctrine of the Holy Scripture it was unlawful to appear against the 

'Gorton's letter, 4th Series, Mass. Hist. Collections vii, 604. Baptism at College 
Church Feb. 12, 1592-3. Dr. Howard's Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica 
New Series, 1877. Vol. i, pp. 321-?. 'No records of the very ajicient town 

of Gorton prior to the year 1685 can be found; they, doubtless, having been 
destroyed in the troublesome times during and preceding the reign of Charles 
the First. As until the close of his reign all English lands vested in the bover- 
ei'^n and were parcelled out by him to his favorites, it is probable that the lana 
was 'held by one of the name who sat off "The Gorton Parish Estate to the 
maintenance of religious worship in the parish ,n°^''^.u!i^^Z 

Nathaniel Morton, Force's Tracts, Vol. iv. The Heraldic Seal : Gules, t^n billets 
or a chief of the second: crest— a goat's head erased, ducallv eorged. which was 
used by the Gortons, is shown in Dr. Howard's Miscellanea. \ ol. 1. p. 37Q. 
*Cobbitt's Parliamentary History, ii, 674, etc. 'Prices Nonconformists 



II 



12 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

King upon religion or any other account whatever ; and all persons to be 
promoted in future to any degree were required to make oath that they 
detested the opposite doctrine and would always continue to have the 
same opinion. 

Gorton's religious training was received in the English Church. In 
an address to Charles the Second he says : " I drew my tenets ' from the 
breast of my mother the Church of England.' " ° To the fundamental 
doctrines taught by the Church he ever firmly held, yet to the practices 
of that time in the Church and in the new Church set up in Massachi;- 
setts he was a Nonconformist. 

We have referred to the corruption at that time in the Universities 
and the conditions under which sacred orders on scholastic degrees 
were at that time obtained from them that the reader should understand 
why the younger generation of conscientious Nonconformists, however 
much their delight in the opportunities for advancement in learning, 
were not only discouraged from attending, but were constrained even 
to condemn these famous schools ; and because Gorton, having thanked 
God that he was not prepared for the ministry in them, " not bred up 
in the schools of human learning," and so " drowned in pride through 
Aristotle's principles,'" his enemies untruthfully proclaimed that he 
despised all human learning. Gorton had a high appreciation of learn- 
ing, and was himself possessed of more literary education than any of 
the Rhode Island founders save Williams. He was instructed by able 
tutors, and he received a classical education from them ; being studious, 
he became an accomplished scholar, more than ordinarily skilled in the 
languages and learned in English law; and his library was enriched with 
the standard " volumes in which the ancient statutes " of his country 
" were written." In law and in politics he understood his rights better 
than did Williams or the proprietors, or the elders and magistrates of 
Massachusetts.* He approved of well educated ministers and teachers, 
and opposed only those of them who enforced for themselves the 
" divine rights " which had been taught them in the ancient schools. 
He ever gave his support to every means providing for liberal educa- 
tion and advancement of the people, and upheld, he says, in answer to the 
charges made against him, " not scrupling any civil ordinance for the 
education, ordering or governing of any civil state." ' 

It appears that he did not leave home till the age of about twenty-five 
or thirty; whether employed until that time in study or business we can 
learn only from that "he had not engaged in any servile employment 
until he settled in the colonies." '" His father had been a London mer- 
chant and a member of a guild, and his own wealth (from the length 
and peristence of his legal controversy in the colonies and in England) 
seems to have exceeded that of any of the early settlers in the Provi- 
dence and Rhode Island Plantations.' 

Papers preserved show that in 1635 he was carrying on the business 
of clothier in London. On the iSth of June of that year John Dukinfield, 
of Dukinfield, Countv of Chester, England, gave him a release of all 
actions and claims of action, etc.. from the beginning of the world to 
that date, apparently in the closing up of his business in London pre- 
paratory to his departure for New England. " He yearned." he writes, 
" for a country where he could be free to worship God according to 

in F.ntrland, i. 454: "*, 09. "Callender's Historical Discourse, p. 02. 

R. I. Hist. Collections, Vol. iv. 'Gorton's letter to Morton. Force's 

Tracts, Vol. iv. "Henry C. Dorr, in R. I. Hist. Collections. R. T. Col- 

lections, ii. 80. Force's Tract No. vi, 30. 40. ^Gorton's Tnnocencv's 

Defense, Staple's Ed., p. 42. "Rider's R. I. Hist. Tract 17. Force's 

Tract No. vi, 76. 'Dorr : Proceedings Mass. Hist. Society, new Series, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 13 

what the Bible taught him, as God enabled him to understand it." 
*' Samuel Gorton was," says Mackie, " one of the noble spirits who 
esteemed liberty more than life, and, counting no sacrifice too great for 
the maintenance of principal, could not dwell at ease in a land where 
the inalienable rights of humanity were not acknowldeged or were 
mocked at. With all its industrial prosperity, its pleasing attractions 
to the eye of sense, its proud public annals and its dear private memories, 
England could not retain him from adventuring upon the then dread 
Atlantic and seeking out a spot among the self-denying settlers of a 
barren coast and a savage wilderness, where in thought, deed, word and 
act he might be free." ' " I left my native country," he says, " to enjoy 
liberty of conscience in respect to faith toward God and for no other 
end." • 

His wife who came with him to New England was Mary Maplet, 
daughter of John Maplet, gent, of St. Martin's le Grand, London, and 
Mary, his wife,* a lady of education and refinement; and, as he wrote of 
her, " as tenderly brought up as any man's wife in the town," " little 
prepared to share with him the hardships of his exceptionally hard 
pioneer experience. Her father was, it appears, the son of the Rev. 
John, whose people had, if the assertion is true, early acquired a com- 
petency in the business of dealer in shoes. 

The freedom of his disbursements and the advantages of education 
he extended to the members of his family reveal the comfortable condi- 
tion of his circumstances and the elevated character of his daughter's 
early environments. That she was accorded by her parents the superior 
advantages enjoyed by the other children while she was with them seems 
reasonable." After her departure she was supplied by them with herds 
of choice breeds of cattle for the stalls and pastures belonging to her 
New England home. 

Gorton landed in Boston in March, 1636-7, at the age of forty-four 
years, with his wife, his eldest son Samuel, then six years of age, and 
one or more other children. 

It was a surprise to him and to many others, who, like him, came to 
New England to enjoy liberty of worship and escape the persecutions 
at that time of the English government, to find upon landing here that 
the new rulers had established over the new colony a new church gov- 
ernment as austere as the old one from which they had departed; and to 
maintain it admitted as citizens only such as could qualify for the new 
church, both in form and doctrine.' That every person not holding to 
the new rulers' opinion. Judge Story says, four-fifths of the people were 
thus disfranchised of all the privileges of a citizen, to vote or to hold 
land; that the freeman's oath had been changed under Endicot, from the 
government of King Charles and was to the government of Massachu- 
setts,* and was required to be given to every man above the age of six- 

Vol. iii, No. 4, p. 210. ^Mackie's life of Samuel Gorton, 2d Series 

Spark's American Biographies, v, 319. 'Gorton: R. I. Collections, ii, 42. 

*Will of Mary Maplet and bequest to daughter Mary, wife of Samuel Gorton, in 
New England. N. E. Hist, and Genealogical Register, xliv, 384. Will of Dr. 
John Maplet and bequest to his sister, Mary Gorton. N. E. Hist, and Genealo- 
gical Reg., xlvi, 153; li, 199. Deed, April 9, 1662, signed by Samuel Gorton, Sr., 
and Mary, his wife; Early Prov. Reeds., 3d Book, brass clasp, p. o, 13, or Book 
2, brass clasp, p. 613. Among Samuel Gorton's children were John, Mary and 
Maplet. "Letter to Morton, Force's Vol. iv. "Mary's brother. 

Dr. John Maplet, who settled in Bath, Eng., was graduated A. M. and M. D. at 
Oxford ; was elected one of its Preceptors ; afterwards was Principal of Gloucester 
Hall, now Worcester College. Guidott said of him : " He was learned, candij 
and ingenious, a good Physician, a better Christian, and an excellent Latin Poet." 
Guidott's Lives, Stephen's & Lee's Diet. National Biographies, Macmillan & Co., 
1893. 'Mass. Rec. 1631, i. 'Mass. Rec. 1634, i, 115, 117. 



14 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

teen,* with the penalty of his being punished and his land, if he had any, 
confiscated in case of his refusal to take it.'" Magistrates were empow- 
ered to fine or imprison all persons absenting themselves from the ser- 
vices of their church,' and no one could be admitted to the freedom of 
the commonwealth who had gathered in any other church meeting;' 
that no one without the magistrates' leave should inhabit in the colony;' 
and that the magistrates were to examine and license those who could 
settle.* Those who had settled in violation of these laws were com- 
manded to depart. The orders were required to be enforced with severe 
penrlties. Every person was forbidden to entertain a stranger in their 
house; to allow them the use of a lot; or vitcnnine an habitation." 

The time of Gorton's arrival was also in the midst of the proceedings 
against Wheelright, the brother-in-law of Annie Hutchinson, which pro- 
ceedings began on the 19th day of March, 1636-7. He says that upon 
his arrival he found the people at great variance in points of religion, 
prosecuting it very hotly in their public courts unto fines and banish- 
ments of men of good report, both for life and doctrine even among 
themselves." 

There is no evidence or intimation anywhere that he took any part 
in these controversies, and from his writings we infer that it is not 
probable that he did. " He discovered that the liberty which he sought 
was not here ; that the practice here was far short of the profession as 
he understood it ; and the liberty which they practiced was only a liberty 
for themselves and not for their other fellow-Christians." ' Only by 
avoiding the attention of the magistrates could he have remained as 
he did with his family v/here he landed, barely long enough to rest 
from the fatigue of the voyage, make a hasty prospect and find a place 
where one with the liberty he sought would be allowed to settle. Within 
about two months from the time of his landing he took up his residence 
in Plymouth, intending to make that his home. 

The Plymouth government was in some respects more liberal than 
that of Massachusetts. The Pilgrims, unlike the Puritans, had sub- 
scribed in their compact to the King and his statutes for their govern- 
ment.* Although they had this early enacted that " no one shall live 
within the government of Plymouth without the leave and liking of the 
Governor and two of the Assistants," ' they did not require of settlers 
that strict conformity to their church which prevailed in Massachusetts. 
Their freeman's oath was to King Charles; their Governor was chosen 
directly by the votes of the freemen, and they recognized the franchise 
right of nearly all settlers. 

William Vassal, a man of fortune, who was one of the original Assist- 
ants named in the charter of the Massachusetts company and a founder 
of that colony, being dissatisfied with the prescriptive government set 
up there, returned to England, but recrossed the sea in 1635-6, settling 
in Plymouth colony. 

Cotton, in his reply to Williams' Bloody Tenet, says that Gorton 

'Mass. Rec. i, 137, 139. '"Mass. Rec. i, 137. Gammel's Life of Williams, 

2d Ser., Spark's Am. Biographies, iv., 41, 42. 'Mass. Rec. i, 140. 

*Mass. Rec. i, 168, Mar. 3, 163^-6. 'Mass. Rec. 1630-5, i, 76, 103, ^^147. 

'Mass. Rec. i, 141 ; 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 100: Johnson Ek. ii, ch. 22. Pref. LXXX. 
"Mass. Rec. R. I. Collections, ii, 46. Winslow's Defense. Armstrong's Hist. Bap- 
tists, 683. R. I. Hist. Tract v, 57. 2d Ed. Savage's Winthrop, ii. 209. Hutch- 
inson's Hist. Mass., i, 26, 62, 147. 'Wheelright was banished from Mass. 
by the government under Winthrop and Dudley, who then, " according to the 
word of God," chose themselves Magistrates for life. 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 220. 
R. I. Collections, ii, 42. 'Chief Justice Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tract 17, 
p. 9. "Ply. Rec. xi, 6 Intd. Edgarton Ryerson's Loyalists of America, 
i, 11, 14. "Ply. Rec. xi, 26. "Judge Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tract 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 15 

remained in Boston until there was sent over " directions to dema-d a 
£100 debt" of a citizen; "as if [though Cotton does not say it] his 
going was occasioned by the demand of and his refusal to pay an honest 
debt. If Cotton meant to intimate such refusal it is against the whole 
course of a long life of eighty-five years, forty years of which were 
passed in New England. He removed but about a day's journey from 
Boston. The courts were as open at Plymouth as at Boston, and he 
might have been followed to Plymouth, but he was not. But there are 
some facts which, in this connection, it may be proper to state, viz., 
Cotton's book was published in London in May, 1647, ten years after 
Gorton left Boston. Gorton was then in England, prosecuting his 
complaint against Massachusetts. The most speedy communication with 
Rhode Island was not open to him. He could not send by way of 
Boston, but only by way of the Dutch at Manhattan. This was long, 
tedious and difficult. Yet on the 30th day of September, 1647, about 
four months from the time Cotton's statement was first made public, 
the release of John Dukinfield, before mentioned, dated nearly two years 
before Gorton left England, was put by Gorton's directions upon the 
Colony Records at Newport, the most public place it could be recorded, 
and is the only instrument of the kind upon those records." " 

Gorton began housekeeping at Plymouth in a part of a bouse he hired 
of Ralph Smith for a term of four years, taking a written lease for 
that time. The early opposition in Massachusetts to Roger Williams 
obliged him to retire to Plymouth. Finding difficulties here, he returned 
to Massachusetts, from whence he was banished. While in Plymouth 
he served as assistant to this Smith, who was then the pastor of the 
church at Plymouth. Smith " had," a church authority said, " the mis- 
fortune to possess more zeal than prudence." Upon the request of the 
congregation, he had, before the period of this narrative, resigned his 
pastoral charge and was rapidly falling into disgrace. (To purloining, 
etc., see through the whole Plymouth Colony Records.) 

On the 7th of June following Gorton's settlement in Plymouth, the 
Colony, in response to a call from Massachusetts, resolved to send 
thirty men as soldiers, and as many more as were necessary, to Massa- 
chusetts to man a vessel to aid them in the Pequot war. The men 
volunteered for this service, and among the volunteers on the 7th day 
of June were Samuel Gorton and Thomas Gorton, the latter by some 
believed to have been his father and by others to have been a bachelor 
brother, who generally accompanied him.' His prompt and voluntarv 
enrollment in this service for a neighboring colony this early reveals 
to us that which was ever afterwards observed in him. an unselfish 
readiness to, under all circumstances, fearlessly bear the responsibilities 
and perform the duties of a citizen "in the "defense of the rights of 
others, as well as of himself." "They may well have deemed him a 
' useful instrument at his first coming." ^ 

'■ The political issues at Plymouth were, at the time of Gorton's arrival 
■there — the time approaching the annual election — of unprecedented 
■interest and importance, for the reason that changes in the government 
were proposed, intended to subvert its order according to the Statutes 
to which the Pilgrims had subscribed to that of the Judaic system of 
intolerance which was established in Massachusetts. The church party 
of Plymouth and Massachusetts had rallied under the leadership of 
Prence of Duxboro, a Massachusetts Puritan, hostile to everything 
opposed to the church and zealous to submit everything to its rule, and 

17. P- 15. 'Ply. Rec. i, 61, omitted from the Index. Hutchinson's Papers, 

59-62. The Pequot war ■was begun in Mar., 1637. The Fort ■was taken May 26, 
1637. The war ended in Sept., 1638. ^Judge Brayton. Gorton was 



i6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

had selected him for Governor of Plymouth Colony. In 1636 eight 
Deputies had met, four from Plymouth and two from each of the other 
towns, and in conjunction with the court revised and codified the laws.* 
These Deputies were selected for only this purpose; were without any 
instructions by the people to introduce a representaitve system, although 
such a system these Deputies reported.* Later in the same year another 
step was taken by the court which was clearly in the direction of a rep- 
resentative system. The function of the General Assembly was divided, 
the meetings for legislation were to be kept distinct from those upon 
the election, and in the latter voting by proxy was permitted.' Another 
Act contrary to the will of the people followed, changing the character 
of the government " from popular to representative," transferring the 
power which was in the whole body of the freemen to Commissioners 
or Deputies, taking away from the people the choice of their Governor 
and giving the choice to a body of delegates. The old yet present method 
of rulers of so doctoring the Statutes that the will of the people cannot 
prevent the perpetuation of the rule of those who are in office. And, 
further, to better insure the election of subservient delegates, the number 
of freemen were diminished, William Vassal and other most worthy 
men being disqualified from voting. 

The patent under which the lands were held was to " William Brad- 
ford, his heirs, his associates and assigns." This, joined to the other 
perils of the new system, occasioned alarm to the people, and filled them 
with apprehension lest citizenship and the land would, as in Massachu- 
setts, be granted only to a few strictly qualified church members. Con- 
ferences between the Deputies and the people were held, which resulted 
in the suspension for a while of the conveyance of land by the Governor 
and Assistants.* 

The church party, however, by arbitrary methods soon prevailed, and 
succeeded both in making Prence the Governor and in the adoption of 
representative government; but the majority party did not quietly yiel . 
to the change, the popular voice was after the excitement, even unr'^r 
the disadvantage of quasi-representation, in a measure expressed oy 
laying aside the Governor at the next election; and, although the new 
system which had been adopted in violation of the will of the people 
was maintained, it was maintained only by means of attending agreeable 
compensating concessions; by Bradford, who succeeded Prence, sur- 
rendering the charter rights in the lands to all of the freemen, and by 
admitting all who had taken the oath of fidelity to the government to 
a voice in choosing the delegates for the elections.' 

One of the reasons, says the Rev. Cotton Mather, why they of Massa- 
chusetts chose that Prence should be Governor of Plymouth was his 
hostility to the exercise of the gift of the established ministry by private 
brethren; and this point, he says, was gained in his election.' "Private 
brethren " vi-ere those not approved by the new church, whether they 
had or not received church orders. 

In May, 1638, there came to Plymouth an eminent scholar and 
preacher of the Gospel, who was born in the same year as Gorton, and 
of whom he speaks as " a Godly man ; " learned in the original languages, 
a professor some time of Greek and of the Hebrew, now silenced as a 
minister in England. He had been sent for to be settled as the minister 
of Plymouth, but, differing from the church as he found it here, the 

afterwards convinced that the wars upon the Indians were unnecessary, and he 
opposed them and that which followed the sale and enslavement of the captives. 
•Ply. Rec. xi, 6. 'Palfrey's Hist. N. Encr., i. 546. "Ply. Rec. 

xi, 80. 'Ply. Rec. xi, 31, 33. 'Ply. Rec. xi, 01, etc. 

•First Am. Ed. Mather's Magnalia, i, 106. 'In 1654 Chauncy was elected 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 17 

matter was submitted to the members of Plymouth and other colonies. 
All were against Chauncy and he was not settled. After preaching as 
aid to Raynor for a while he was called to Scituate, the town adjoining, 
in Plymouth Colony, where he remained, although with frequent troubles, 
for more than twelve years.' 

Gorton, we are assured, was the most determined leader of the people 
in their opposition to the church system, not even excepting their active 
leader Vassal. Gorton also was one of those who, for the exercise of 
the gift of the established brethren, was a subject of the hostility of 
Prence, the point gained by his election. 

The law referred to against harboring strangers was now for the first 
rigidly enforced by Prence's administration, in deporting those who 
were not in harmony with it in their belief and conduct. 

There was and had been for some time prior to November, 1638, 
living in Gorton's family a widow by the name of Ellen Aldridge, a 
woman of good repute, careful of her reputation, who had lately come 
over and was employed by his wife as a servant in the family. " It had 
been whispered privately that she had smiled in the congregation (a 
similar instance is recorded in an early law docket of Trumbull's. 
" Susan Smith, on the Lord's day during Divine service, did smile." 
Fined five shillings and costs of prosecution), and the Governor Prence 
sent to know her business, and commanded, after punishment as the 
bench see fit, her departure and also anyone who brought her ' to the place 
from which she came.' " Gorton says they proposed to deport her as 
a vagabond, and to escape the shame threatened to be put upon her she 
fled to the woods, where she for several days remained, returning at 
night to his home for shelter. Gorton appeared at court [Dec. 4, 1638] 
in defense of her, showed that the offense was not recognized in the 
English law, to the protection of which he appealed, and that she was 
no vagabond, that she was a woman of good report and by diligent labor 
earning her bread. He was charged with deluding the court of her, 
and he was bound to answer for this contempt at the next sessions. 

Gorton had now made Plymouth his home for eighteen months, and 
he was described as quiet and peaceable ; a useful citizen ; kind, court- 
eous, agreeable. He appeared at the next sessions of the court to defend 
himself for defending this woman ; was fined for seditious conduct and 
limited to fourteen days to remain in Plymouth. This is Gorton's truth- 
ful account of it, agreeing exactly with the official records. 

During the agitation attending this the emotions of Ralph Smith, the 
ex-pastor before mentioned, became excited, and he, taking sides against 
Gorton, ordered him to vacate the house. Gorton persuaded Smith to 
leave the matter to Deacon Cook and others for arbitrament, but the 
Governor Prence, learning of it, imperiously commanded the papers 
out of their hands and destroyed them. This Ralph Smith affair, which 
was not a case in court, was settled in Smith's favor by the former 
case which was in court, by its act of Gorton's banishment, which, of 
course, compelled him to abandon the house. 

The only charge of the court against Gorton, the alleged sedition, 
occurred in the half hour at the court in which he appeared for defend- 
ing this woman." 

successor to Henry Duster, the first President of Harvard College. Stephen's 
Diet. Nat. Biog. Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tract 17. Mass. Gen. Reg. X, 105. Baylie's 
Plymouth, ii, part 2, pp. 258-265, Seq. "Charles Dean, in an article 

published in 1850, unfairly compares Gorton's story of Plymouth's dealings with 
his enemies' story of it. Mr. Dean is unfair because he ignores Plymouth's 
official records of it, which show that only Gorton's account of it is true. Ply. 
Rec, i, 100, 105. Force's Tracts, Vol. 4, Nos. 6 and 7. Judge Brayton, R. I. 



i8 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

This action against Gorton was very unpopular. People, such as 
inhabit our towns and make up our courts to-day, would have appeared 
and been heard in opposition to the magistrates ; but those of that gener- 
ation had been bred under oppression, and been, many of them, by sad 
experience, made docile to those who claimed the divine right to rule 
them. Yet the people left upon the official docket a record that is, 
although in quiet form, a remarkably strong and Unanimous Protest 
to the Proceedings. Every one of the sixteen, upon whom the court 
depended for the trial and its orderly proceeding, attested their dis- 
approval and dislike to it by their absence. All of them were fined once, 
and most of them twice, and many of them three times, by the magis- 
trates for persistent non-attendance.' This, like most of the other per- 
secuting trials in Plymouth and Massachusetts, was conducted by a 
handful of church-magistrates in tlieir own imperious way. To the 
honor of Plymouth and Massachusetts it can be said that they never 
were approved by the people. 

William Vassal, before referred to, who had settled in Plymouth 
Colony, was one of the foremost in the movement to abolish the dis- 
tinctions that were maintained in civil and church state, and to have 
the government administered wholly by the laws of England. Nine 
men, but two of half the whole number of freemen from Vassal's town, 
Scituate,^ were at this same court of Prence's at which Gorton was 
sentenced, presented for speaking disrespectful of the Governor and 
magistrates or assistants, and for without license admitting strangers 
and foreigners to their houses and lands.' When, in 1645, Vassal's 
movement had extended beyond Plymouth and into Massachusetts, 
Winslow of Plymouth wrote to Winthrop of Massachusetts a letter of 
commiseration on account of it, with a description of what had been 
attempted at Plymouth and a lamentation in the following strain that 
such a spirit of toleration had arisen and was prevailing: "The sum 
of it was," said Winslow, " to allow and maintain full and free toleration 
of religion to all men that would preserve the civil peace and submit 
unto government. But the Governor. Mr. Prence, and myself expressed 
the sad consequences that would follow [yet, notwithstanding, it was 
required according to order to be voted], and the Governor would not 
allow it to come to vote, as being that would eat out the power of godli- 
ness." " You would have admired to have seen how sweet this carion 
relished to the deputies." " If you have heard of the particulars and the 
persons, especially the ringleader of the rout, you may gather the more 
insight by this general." * Though early a liberal Governor, he 
(Winslow) later imbibed some of the persecuting spirit of Massachu- 
setts." But a majority of the General Court of Plymouth, among them 
Brown, Hatherly, Standish and Freeman, were in favor of Vassal's 
movement. Yet, knowing this, Prence the Governor could override the 
Deputies and the people, and even violate the established order of the 
court, as he did by refusing to put the question to vote.' 

Prence, "the only persecuting Governor of the Plymouth colony,"' 
industriously and relentlessly enforced the Puritan church policy. His 
very first act as Governor was the whipping of Web Abey, upon the 
unreliable testimony of the same before-named Ralph Smith, that the 
man had upon a Sunday bestowed some labor upon his garden. Richard 
Smith, a prime leading man in Taunton, for his conscience' sake, many 

Hist. Tract 17, Seq. 'Ply. Rec, i, 104, 126. "Twenty-tv o 

freemen, nineteen others, in all but forty-one, was the entire adult male popula- 
tion of the town. Baylie's Hist. Ply. Colony, i, 282. *Ply. Rec, i, 106. 
'Winslow's letter, Hutchinson's Papers, 172-175. "Loyalists of America, 
i, 97. 'Loyalists of America, i, 104. 'Loy. of Am., i, 12, 104 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 19 

difficulties arising, was compelled to leave, and settled in Narrangansett.* 
And one, Master Doughty, a minister and a man of means when he 
came to the colony, v/as ruined by fines and then forced to go away with 
his wife and children.* Not all of these, or of other like cases, are 
entered in the ofificial records, yet those that are there are too numerous 
to here permit their further enumeration. Bradford, the people's can- 
didate, succeeded Prence in the chief office; and Prence did not for 
nineteen years thereafter, not until Bradford's death, and with the 
assistance of the Massachusetts magistrates, again secure the office.'" 
His temper was then the same, severe and unimproved by his experience 
and long waiting. Upon regaining the Governorship and judicial seat, 
his first act was to appoint a committee to revise the laws. New ones 
against the Quakers were under his leadership immediately enacted, 
and the law that the Governor should hold the office " one whole year, 
no more,'" was to provide, as in Massachusetts, for a tenure for life, 
changed to " until another be elected." ' Now, under the representative 
system which he had been foremost in establishing and by the delegates 
of his promotion and handling, he was many times re-elected to the office. 
His rule was one of exceptionally severe persecution and cruelty.* 

Having made but brief reference to the court in whick Gorton was 
tried, let us return to it for some particulars of the trial. The court is 
the accuseer. At the first hearing the court, enlarging upon a point, 
aggravated the matter more than Gorton thought it deserved, so much 
so that he said they " were speaking hyperbolically." The magistrate, 
not understanding that term, turned to their Elder, Brewster, for an 
explanation, and the explanation was that he, Gorton, had told the 
mar^istrate " that he lied." Gorton " thought that this would not do to 
apply to the Scripture of Truth." At the final hearing Jonathan Brew- 
ster, the son of the ruling Elder and the one that explained the hyperbole, 
was the Foreman of the Jury. "Winslow says, Gorton being called, and 
the Governor (Prence), because he was weary of speech to other causes, 
requested one of the magistrates, who was present at the commitment 
and privy to the whole cause, to state the cause of his bonds in the 
great affront he had given the government. The magistrates, Gorton 
a:-serted, should not be parties and judges; that the place of a Prosecutor 
v/as not in the Judge's seat, but " down here where a Prosecutor should 
stand ; " and he called the people to witness how their liberties were 
abused. The cause was stated, however, by one of the magistrates, the 
one who presided at the first trial. Magistrates and divers Elders were 
allowed to speak as Prosecutors, while, though there was no Attorney 
at Plymouth to speak for Gorton, the Foreman of the Jury moved that 
he should not be allowed to speak for himself. His reference to the 
English Statutes was not regarded. Magistrate nor Elder would listen 
to recitations from them, but all urged that punishment should be 
inflicted.* 

TI:e following is Chief Justice Brayton's description : " I have en- 
deavored to figure to myself the court scene as it occurred at that trial. 
Here is a tall, spare man, with arms proportional, and urging gestures, 
a man of independent spirit, as intelligent as any member of the court 
before which he appears, having a character for truth, for honesty, for 
morality, for courtesy to all, and for Christian charity; a quick sense 
of justice, earnest in the defense of the rights of others, as well as of 
himself; having a just pride in his ancestry, no one of whom had ever 

note. "Roger Williams' letter, Br. State Paper Office. 'Baylie's 

Hist. Ply., i, 289, 290. '"Ply. Rec. and Bradford's Hist. Ply., 362. 

'Ply. Rec, xi, 7. 'Brigham's Ply. Laws, ^t. 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 219, 

220 and note. 'Ply. Rec, i and ii. *R. I. Hist Tract 17. 



20 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

been thus treated, whose boast it was that he never laid his hands in 
violence upon any human being, not even upon his children ; a man who, 
though he would avoid the ecclesiastical law at home or here, yet desired 
to be governed in all civil respects by the common laws of England with 
its ancient Statutes. He is here for the first time arraigned for any 
offense whatever. The charge now is that he endeavored to keep away 
from the court a reputable woman, charged with no offense (a servant 
in his own family), to prevent the disgrace upon her of being treated 
as a vagabond and her to remain a faithful servant. 

" The court here was one in whose breast alo7te by the Statutes of 
Plymouth was vested the kind and the measure of punishment of every 
misdemeanor * as God had enlightened them.' 

" This man was standing before this court and in the presence of a 
jury empanelled to try his case, and awaits the charges to be stated by 
the Prosecutor or accuser. 

" It came from the court which sits in judgment and from the mouth 
of that member, zvho, when the court was held more private, stated the 
charge with such gross aggravation, and who now probably states it with 
the same aggravation. 

" Is it strange that he should object to his accusers sitting as his 
judges? and should say that the place of an accuser should not be in 
the judgment seat, but ' do^vn here,' the place of a Prosecutor. 'Let 
them not be parties and judges' 

"They continue to sit in judgment. He attempts to defend himself; 
he most likely called their attention to the ancient laws of England, 
and in the language of these laws, for he says, elsewhere, he was not 
allowed to speak in their language. He endeavors to defend himself, 
nevertheless. 

"And now the foreman of the jury, the son of the ruling elder who 
explained the hyperbole, not content with perfortning his duty as an 
impartial juror, rises and moves the court that he shall not be allowed 
to speak for himself, and, there being no Attorney at Plymouth, in effect 
that he should not be defended. 

" \\' hat would such a man in such a presence and under such circum- 
stances be likely to say or do? 

" Would he, while his accusers sat in judgment upon him, quietly 
asquiesce in the justice of it? or would he not rather challenge them for 
partiality and that zcarmly? and when his objection was rudely over- 
ruled, is it strange that he shoidd say with warmth, somewhat mingled 
with indignation, 'Let them not be parties and judges;' or that his long 
arm should be stretched out either toward the bench or to the audience, 
with the spirit that moved him? 

" He attempts to refer to the laws of England [he is a loyal man] as 
bearing upon the question of his guilt ; they are not allowed to be named. 
He attempts to speak in the 'language of them;' he cannot speak 'in 
their language.' and his defense is restrained. 

" Now the foreman of that body of men who are to try him, and zvho 
he supposed were impartial, rises and attempts to cut him off from 
further hearing and to close his mouth. 

" I repeat, what would such a man, of an independent and fearless 
spirit, be likely to do or say under these circumstances? Would he not 
rise to his full height, and, breasting himself to the storm, not merely 
warmed, but iired with indignation, vent himself in impassioned lan- 
guage, and breathe out his feelings of wrong and oppression? would he 
not be eloquent [for he is said to have been eloquent], and might he not 
be excused, if, moved by the spirit, his gestures were vehement, if he 
* threw his arms about? ' 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 21 

"All this defense and attempted defense were pronounced to be tur- 
bulent and seditious ; and so, on the 4th day of December, 1638, he was 
sentenced to depart from Plymouth, his home, his hired house, his wife 
and children, and to be beyond the utmost bounds of it within fourteen 
days." 

His departure from Plymouth was in the extremity of New England 
mid-winter, and happened in the midst of the greatest tempest of wind 
and snow recorded of the times, from the severity of which many of the 
colonists were frozen and perished.'' " When the snow was up to the 
knee and rivers to wade through up to the middle, and not so much as 
one Indian to be found in that extremity of weather to afford either 
fire or harbour, such as themselves had, being retired into the swamps 
and thickets, where they were not to be found in any condition, we lay 
divers nights together, and were constrained with the hazard of our 
lives to betake ourselves to Narragansett Bay." ' Through which he was 
preserved and came within the limit of his sentence, on December i8th, 
to Pocasset, the nearest settlement, of abouty twenty families, on the 
upper portion of Aquidneck Island. This island is in area nearly one 
thirty-fifth part of the colony. 



CHAPTER II. 

The settlement of Pocasset Aquidneck Island — Magistrate Coddington deposed 
from office in Massachusetts — Deacon Aspinwall banished from Massachusetts 
— Rev. John Clark, Coddington, Aspinwall and others sign a compact for a 
new government — Coddington called to answer in the court at Boston — Clark, 
throdgh Williams, obtains the island — Clark settles on the island — Coddington 
settles there over a month later — Mrs. Hutchinson leaves Boston — Her settle- 
ment upon the island— The Boston church disciplines Coddington and others 
— Coddington adds the Massachusetts order of Elders to his government — 
Coddington and his Elders left out of office at the succeeding election — Over- 
throw of the government of Elders — Coddington again removes, carries off the 
records, and starts another town and church government — Gorton and Hutch- 
inson organize a model civil government on the island — Hutchinson Governor 
and Chief Judge — Gorton Deputy Governor and Assistant Judge, and the 
first Quarterly Courts and the first Trial Juries in the colony — They change 
name of town to Portsmouth — Coddington makes propositions to restore him 
to government — He seeks a patent for the island — Gorton's opposition to Cod- 
dington's return to government — Coddington writes to Winthrop and seeks 
aid — Desired help sent from Boston — The return of Coddington with his 
Elders and their usurping of the government — Massachusetts and Plymouth 
methods adopted — Anonymous accounts and what really happened at Ports- 
mouth — Coddington troops quell the disturbance — Gorton leaves the island — 
Clark and Lenthal break from Coddington and join the liberal party — Dis- 
memberment of the church — Beginning of the Baptist Church — Lenthal's de- 
parture — the exodus from the island. 

Pocasset, the first settlement upon the island, was made in 1637-8 by 
John Clark and his followers, who were of the party of Massachusetts 
Puritans in smypathy with John Wheelright. At the Massachusetts 
May, 1637, election all the magistrates were chosen from the party of 
the Covenant of Works, and Vane. Coddington and Dnmmer of the 
opposite, Covenant of Grace, the party to which John Cotton for the 
time adhered, were left out of office. 

The defeated magistrates showed their sense of injury by leaving the 
seats appointed for the magistrates at the public worship, though Win- 

■Dec. IS, 1638, 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 344. 'Simp. Defense, R. I. Hist. 



32 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

throp sent to them, desiring them to sit with him; and, on the day 
appointed for a Fast, October 12, 1637, on occasion of the Pequot 
war, they deserted tlie Boston congregation and spent the day with 
Wheelright at Mt. WoIHston, listening to him.' 

More than sixty male members of the Boston Church had remon- 
strated to the proceedings against Wheelright. One of them. Deacon 
Aspinwall, a magistrate, was dismissed and banished." Deacon Cogger- 
shall, another representative, although not a signer, but a justifier, was 
dismissed.' Most of the other remonstrators were required to deliver 
up their arms. From among the latter John Clark proposed and Win- 
throp advised a removal of them from the jurisdiction. After some 
prospecting they met Roger Williams, upon whose advice they concluded 
to settle upon the island of Aquidneck, which he, out of love for Clark, 
agreed to secure for them;'" and they returned to Boston to arrange 
for removal in the spring. 

On March 7th, 1637-8, Clark, Aspinwall, Coggershall, Coddington and 
others, in all nineteen in number, most of them long esteemed members 
of the church at Boston, and most of whom were under no offense at all 
and were never censured,' drew up, in one, a church covenant and com- 
pact of government, with the references. Exodus xxiv. 3, 4; First 
Chronicles xi. 3; Second Kings xi. 17, affixed to it, to all of which they 
subscribed.^ The form was that of the Puritans submitting themselves 
to God and the Bible, to be ruled thereby, being different from the 
Pilgrims, who subscribed to the King and his Statutes for their govern- 
ment. Coddington, who had long served as a magistrate, who was one 
of the magistrates that expelled Williams from Salem,' having large 
experience in government, they made judge — the sole judge to rule them. 
This was a fortnight before the excommunication of Mrs. Hutchinson.* 
After the signing of the compact and thereupon, March 12th, Deacons 
Coggershall, Coddington and several others of the party were called 
to appear at the court in Boston to answer about their departure or 
remaining, Winthrop advising them to go off only for a time and then 
to return.^ 

On the 24th of the month Williams obtained the island of Aquidneck 
for them. The Sachems, Cannonicus and Miantinomi, had three years 
before made a verbal tenure to him of Mooshausic. He now drew up 
to himself a formal grant for it, and also a grant to Clark's company 
for Aquidneck and two other small islands, which these Sachems exe- 
cuted. " It was obtained," Williams says, "by love; not price nor money; 
by the love and favor which that honorable gentleman (Vane) and 
mvself had with that great Sachem Miantinomi. Thousands could not 
have bought of him Providence, Pautuxet or Aquidneck, or any other 
land I had of him." Upon Williams' advice a gratuity of some beads, 
coats and socks was made up by Clark and his party and given to the 
Sachems. " I," Williams says, " drew up a writing in as sure a form 
as I could at that time, for the benefit and assurance of the present and 
future inhabitants of the island."* And, as Coddington was made the 

Collections, ii, 47. 'FJlis' Life of Annie Hutchinson, Spark's Am. Bio?., 

246, 259. 'Ellis' Annie Hutchinson, 343. 'Ellis' Annie Hutch- 

inson, 274, 275. '"Clark's Acct., 4th Mass. Collections, ji, 24, 25;. 

'Callender's Hist. Discourse, R. T. Collections, iv, 81. "Island Compact, 

original records and " copy " in Bartlett's R. T. Rec, i. 52. Bo.ston Church Cove- 
nant, R. I. Collections, iii, 126. 'The Magistrates or Assistants who 
filled the offices of Governor, Deputy Governor and Treasurer, the latter Codding- 
ton, are mentioned by the last named titles, instead of by their names, in the 
printed records of this sitting of the Court of the .Assistants. ''Mrs. 
Hutchinson's trial was in Nov., 1637. Her detention followed. Her banishment 
was Mar. 22, 1637-8. "Ellis' Annie Hutchinson, 319, 343. Spark's Am. 
Biographies, 2d Ser., vi. "Williams' letter, Narragansett Club Papers, v, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 23 

head of Clark's company, the grant was drawn to " Coddington and his 

friends." . , . 

Clark, with most of the company, immediately settled on the island. 
Afterwards, on the 26th of April, Coddington, with his family, joined 
them. At their first meeting following, May 13th, they located the town 
Pocasset and a meeting house. They " gathered a church " of excom- 
municated and admonished members of the Boston and Roxbury 
churches, of mem.bers still attached to these churches who had never 
been censured nor dismissed, and some new professors.^ They adopted 
a freeman's oath or terms of admission to membership in their govern- 
ment, which was of fidelity, not to known civil laws, but to the laws of 
Moses, according to the opinion of "the judge in matters of judgment." 
And they sat up a court which was a modern Sanhedrim, its govern- 
ment, except in the sympathy briefly tempering it to those who held to 
the covenant of grace, of slight improvement on the one they departed 
from in Massachusetts. r , ■ 

Mrs. Hutchinson, who had been convicted of heresy and confined m 
Massachusetts, upon her release, the 28th of March, 1637-8, went to 
Mt Wolliston (Braintree) to her husband, who had joined with the 
others in procuring the island of Aquidneck, and they, with other 
friends, during the summer went to the island. Whether Mrs. Hutch- 
inson's admittance as an inhabitant of the new island town was accom- 
panied with her reception to the church is uncertain but very likely, 
for the church, which was organized before her arrival, had " objection- 
able members." 

Those of the island church whom the Boston church still hoped to 
influence were called into question for receiving the objectionable mem- 
bers and for participating in such a sin. Coddington, being on a visit 
to Boston, was brought under the discipline of the church there, con- 
fessed himself in fault, and was solemnly admonished; and others of 
them, who were wont frequently to visit Boston, were called to answer 
by the authorities. The members of the island church were thus dealt 
with as often as opportunity afforded, and by the performance of such 
acts of discipline, so often, its leading members became greatly weaned 
from attachment to Mrs. Hutchinson and the so-called antinomians. 

There was the same difference between Gorton's views of government 
and the government established here that there was at Plymouth. It was 
not the bare objection attributed to him that the islanders were without 
a charter. Although Plymouth had one " by which," he said, " authority 
was derived, which authority I reverenced," her government was 
scarcely less objectionable to him on account of it. His objections 10 
the government on the island were that those who administered it 
observed not the laws of England, of whom they were subjects, nor the 
rights they provided for her subjects, that they had received no grant 
of sovereignity from her, nor were they ruling by the suffrage of a 
majority of the people, but had set themselves up as rulers and were 
ETOverning by their own interpretations of laws from the Bible. Gorton 
was a student of law. His library he brought with him from England 
contained the standard authorities," and he understood hi^s own and the 
people's rights better than did these judges and elders." 

The few admitted "freemen" who sustained Coddington s govern- 
ment had already become a moiety of the people, and even they, most of 

»2d Ed. Winthrop's, i, 357- Callender's Hist. Discourse 8t Ellis' Annie Hutch- 
inson. .26. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 138. ^ 'Ellis' Annie Hutchinson 327. 

»R. I. Collections, ii. 80. Library to Samuel, Jr.. Austins Genealogical Uict. 
"Dorr in R. I. Collections. ^Minutes Warren Baptist Assn., 1849. 



24 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

them, had become dissatisfied and desired relief from its despotic ten- 
dency. It, on the 22d day of January, within a month after Gorton's 
arrival there, impelled probably by the necessity of stemming an out- 
break of the opposing masses, adopted an amendment for the purpose 
of gaining a firmer administration ; by which the form of the government 
was changed from that of Hebrew judges to Hebrew judges and elders, 
a form more highly Puritan and more in keeping with the church 
order. This was effected by " choosing and calling " the " elders of the 
church,* Coggershall, Easton and Brenton, " into the place of Elder- 
ship " in the government, to rule with Coddington, and to allot only to 
acceptable tenants the use of the soil.' The Judges and Elders to account 
for their acts to the body of freemen every quarter of the year, that 
what had been done might be confirmed or repealed by the act of the 
body. The Sergeant was to attend all meetings of the Judges and Elders 
and to inform them of all breaches of the law of God that tended to civil 
disturbance.* 

The government was, under this form, carried on at Pocasset a little 
less than four months; whether the rulers gave an account to the body 
of freemen at the end of the quarter, April 2d, does not appear from the 
records, but on the 28th day of that month the majority' of the freemen 
were that dissatisfied with their government that they would not endure 
it longer. They, therefore, put out Coddington and the three Elders 
and chose in the place of the former William Hutchinson.^ 

Gorton was the principal leader in this movement, the overthrow of 
the government of Judges and Elders, who, he said, had " changed the 
government from what it was originally," and who here, as elsewhere, 
had denied freedom to all but themselves. No charges of official 
derelictions appear of record against the deposed leaders, although an 
" offering " shortly after issued by themselves implies that such had 
been made.* That they had been despotic in their administration is 
proven in that of the seventy-three now inhabitants but twenty-three 
had been made " freemen," and thus the large majority of more than 
two-thirds of the inhabitants were debarred from holding land and from 
the right to vote. Besides, to this large dissatisfied majority who were 
not freemen were added, on account of Coddington's denial of them of 
the land rights justly claimed by them, nearly all of the original compact 
freemen and nearly two-thirds of all who had been made freemen. 

Coddington being named in the Indian grant, his right in the land 
was evident, while the rights in it of the others with whom he joined in 
securing it, but who had not their names placed in the grant, was sub- 
jected to change and question. British lands were at this time held under 
the feudal system, the Indian Sachems being recognized by the English 
government as the feudal lords of the soil. Coddington, by virtue of 
the Indian grant, himself assumed the lordship and disposal of the island 
in tenantry only and to those who pledged fealty to his government and 
became his friends. The land was voted by Coddington and his council 
to this tenantry^ for occupancy and improvement, and was again voted 
away from them if they opposed his intended doings or failed to build.' 

As a consequence of these conditions the land troubles became severe 
and continued so, events encouraging Coddington, while the land hold- 
ings remained in this unsettled state for thirteen more years, when, 
after about half of those who had ioined in securing Aquidneck had 
from the various causes departed from the island, those remaining, 

'R. I. Records, i, 63, 64. 'R. I. Records, i. 65. Callander's R. I. Col- 

lections, iv, 116. *Judge Brayton's R. I. Hist. Tract, 17. '2d 

Ed. Winthrop, i, 356. *R. I. Rec, i, 93. ^Records, i, 54, 55, 

May 20, 1638. 'Records, i, 59, 68. Tlecords, i, 45, 51. R. I. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 25 

by fortuitous circumstances hereinafter related, drew from him an 
acknowledgment of the land rights that belonged to them." 

As before, when left out of office in Massachusetts, Coddington and 
the three Elders, with Dyre the clerk, and two of the original members, 
John Clark and Henry Bull, and two other persons, Jeremy Clark and 
Thomas Hazard, who had not been admitted members, determined to 
remove and propagate a new plantation. 

These ex-officials took the books of records and land evidences of the 
Pocasset government, which they had no right to, with them, and with 
the others, in all nine persons, removed twelve miles down the island, 
where they started, April 28, 1639, the town of Newport.'" For their 
government they resolved " our determination shall be by Judge and 
Elders," and while at Pocasset the Judge had but one, they resolved 
now for a government of greater strength, " the Judge to have double 
voice," or vote. " They carried on this government at Newport as they 
had at Pocasset, with this variation only : The Judge, who before had 
but one, now had a double voice. They still judged according to the 
law of God as the Judge should determine." This was not a civil gov- 
ernment.' 

Gorton and his friends, the majority of the people, those who remained 
at Pocasset, none the less than others acknowledged the presence of the 
necessity for government and approved of government of necessity 
without a charter, sanctioned by the people and in accordance to known 
statute law. 

Two days after removal from Pocasset of those who had been left 
out of office, on April 30th, those that remained at Pocasset that had not 
been members of the government — inhabitants dwelling there — with 
William Hutchinson as an original member, by a written compact, 
whereby acknowledging themselves " legal subjects of King Charles," 
they bound themselves " into a Civil body politic, unto his laws, accord- 
ing to matters of justice." To this compact, already acknoidedglng His 
Majesty's Lazvs for their government, each member " particularly 
recorded," " underwrote " his " agreement " and " acknowledgment." 

William Hutchinson and Samuel Gorton lead the list of subscribers 
to this compact. Among the names subscribed to it, Samuel Gorton, 
John Wickes, Sampson Shotten and Robert Potter, residing there, were 
afterwards original purchasers of Shawomet — none of them members 
of the church compact. 

The record of this new compact further is: "According to the intent 
of the foregoing instrument, we, whose names are hereunto particularly 
recorded, do agree, jointly, as by major voice, to govern ourselves by 
the ruler or judge amongst us in all transactions for the space of one 
year, he behaving himself according to the tenor of the same." ^ 

The names of chief officers of this new government were erased from 
the records by a succeeding administration, but we learn from Baylie 
that they chose William Hutchinson [who is first on their list of mem- 
bers] Governor.* They chose one, and Samuel Gorton is next on their 
list of members. Deputy Governor. They terminated the office of 
Elderships and chose four they called Assistants. These, with a 
Recorder, Treasurer and Sergeant, for the help of the Governor in his 

Hist. Tract, ist Ser., iv, 23, 24. After the King Phih'p'? War, when the records 
of the many early settlers were destroyed and nearly all the land of the island 
stood in the names of Coddinpton and his serviceable friends, the lands were by 
Legislative Act confirmed absolutely to those in whose names they were at the 
time of the passage of the Act recorded. "Nicholas Easton, one of the 

three who were appointed Elders, gave the name Newport to the new settlement. 
R. I. Collections, vii, 330. 'Chief Justice Brayton, Rider's Hist. Tract, 

17, p. 47, ^Portsmouth, R. I. Rec. i, 70. 71. Rider's Hist. Tract, 17. 

'Baylie's Dissuasive from the Errors of the Times to 1645, p. iSO- Palfrey's 



26 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

adnw'nistration for one year. The titles of Governor, Deputy Governor 
and Assistants were given to the officers of the government in their 
official records, and they were the first of these titles in the colony." 

" It was a government to exist for one year. It was a government 
of law — English law. They provided for courts to be held every year 
and every quarter of th.e year, and for a jury of twelve men to do right 
betivixt man and man." 

The men chosen as Assistants might consult among themselves and 
put an end to controversies not amounting in value to £40 sterling. The 
Judge, with the jury to decide it, if brought to the public court. This 
i^as the first government in the colony with Magistrates governing only 
in civil things; also was the earliest provision for a jury trial, and for 
regular courts for the trial of causes made in the colony. 

This government differed as wide as the poles from any system at the 
Bay, or as yet at Newport. " It was the first government in the colony 
organized like our government of to-day and maintained by universal 
suttrage. No religious tests of political qualifications were prescribed, 
every permanent inhabitant was a citizen. The government at Newport 
continued to be administered as it had been — justice and judgment to 
be impartial, according to the law of God." 

They, at Pocasset, were living under a different form of government — 
an entirely different system — had acknowledged their allegiance and 
submitted to the laws of their King, and were now living under a com- 
pact which swept away the whole Puritan polity." It was a model 
government. ^ It changed the name of the town to 'Portsmouth. It held 
regular meetings monthly.* 

They at Newport, governing there, desired to be restored to govern- 
ing at Pocasset, now Portsmouth, and had at an early meeting appointed 
Commissioners to negotiate with the " brethren at Pocasset " for this 
end; but neither Hutchinson, Gorton or any others in place in the Ports- 
mouth government entertained the negotiators or their proposals. Not 
discouraged, they at Newport, on the 25th of November, 1639, further 
ordered that the Commissioners formerly appointed to negotiate the 
business with our brethren at Pocasset shall give them our proposi- 
tion under their hands, with their answers, and shall give reply unto 
it, and so shall return to the body a brief of what they therein have 
done.' They also appointed a committee for the purpose of obtaining a 
patent for the island. 

We are not informed what all the inducements were which Codding- 
ton offered to effect the restoration of his government to Pocasset. 
Those with him at Newport had been liberally allotted land, and would, 
with Portsmouth, have larger bounty of lands and of homes to be con- 
fiscated when they returned." The Pocasset brethren were without a 
land title, could not pass any, nor secure any from Coddington unless 

Hist. N. Eng., i, 515 note. 2d Ed. Winthrop's Journal, i, 356. 'Ellis' 

Life of Annie Hutchinson. Portsmouth and R. I. Reeds. There were thirty-one 
who signed the Compact for Civil Government, and whose names are upon the 
original papers. Two of these names, those of Wm. Aspinwall and Thos. SavaE;e, 
were crossed over fiy some one and are omitted from the printed records ; hut 
they belong to the list. Roth of these men lived in Pocasset all the while Hutch- 
inson was Governor. Savage did not leave until Feb. 2, 1639-40, after Coddincrton 
had provided to return there. Asninwall was there when the Boston Church 
Committee visited the island Feb. 28, i6-!o-io, and for two years after. With all 
the mutilation which the R. I. records underwent in the hands of the Coddington 
party, to favor their government, many errors, aggravating the deception, were 
also made in the copying, arranging and printing of them. They should be 
reprinted from the originals. 'Chief Justice Brayton in R. T. H. Tract, 

Tst Ser., 17, pp. 50, 51. 'Record<;, i, 7.?. ^Records, i. 04. 

^Records, i, 99. 'Indian Grant, R. I. Rec, i, 45. "Records, i, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 27 

they, by again supporting him, became " his friends." ° It appears, too, 
that the government by Judge and Elders was not to be readopted by 
him if he were again received by them. Another, a significant " offer- 
ing," is recorded from the Newport brethren to the Pocasset brethren — 
" That, as natural subjects to our Prince and subject to his laws, all 
matters that concern the peace shall be by those that are officers of the 
peace transacted; and all actions of the case or department shall be in 
such courts as by orders are here appointed, and by such Judges as are 
deputed, heard and legally determined." "* The members did not set 
their names to this. It was signed by their Secretary and sent " to the 
Pocasset brethren." It was a revelation of its authors' deficient knowl- 
edge of law and their past disregard for it, and an offer to reform by 
adopting and thereafter observing legal methods in their proceedings. 
The Pocasset or Portsmouth people had individually subscribed to the 
English statute laws. Among other propositions of Coddington's was 
that he made to his henchmen, stated by him in his letter to Winthrop, 
as a condition of his return — that Gorton and other leaders of the liberal 
party should be driven from the island. Considering the eager desire of 
the Coddington party for office and the wrath which they cherished 
against those who opposed them, this promise, it will be seen, was cal- 
culated to arouse them to great exertion. 

Coddington, writing to Governor Winthrop, December 9, 1639, fifteen 
days after, says : " I am removed twelve miles further up into the island. 
They gathered a church and intend to choose officers shortly, and desire 
better helps in that kind when the Lord is pleased to send them, and 
would gladly see what means doth lie in us to obtain them. Things are 
in far better pass, divers families being come in, and have given satis- 
faction. Mr. Gorton and Mrs. Hutchinson oppose it. It was hatched 
while I was in the Bay, and the Lord, I hope, will shortly put an end to 
it. Mr. John Coggershall, Mr. William Brenton and Sergeant Balston 
do desire to have their services presented to your worship." ^ 

This conference of Coddington's committee — what he terms as his 
removal up the island — was a meeting with not more than one or two 
of the Portsmouth men, and was not an acceptance of his government 
or of the people there, of his propositions or his authority. Gorton says: 
" I knew of none that was present at their meeting but a Clergyman to 
bless then." ' 

The " helps " who Coddington solicited from Winthrop the church 
was pleased to supply him. In February, 1639-40, a deputation. Wild 
says, of " four men of a loving and winning spirit " were sent by the 
Boston church to visit its members upon the island, to discipline some 
and to reclaim others. There are but three, William Hibbins, Edward 
Gibbons and John Oliver, named in the manuscript returns, but Mr. 
Lenthal, who went to Newport at the same time and remained to teach 
there, may have been the other member. The deputation lodged the 
first night of their journey at Mt. Wolliston with Mr. Savage, who had 
but a few days before (February 6, 1639-40) left Portsmouth. The 
second night they were met on the way by one who came from Taunton 
and conducted them to his house. Oliver and Lenthal, after leaving 
Taunton, for a time lost their way, but on the third day, February 28th, 
they all came to Portsmouth.* Their return was made in the meeting 
house at Boston after Cotton had finished his public exposition. March 
16, 1639-40. At Portsmouth* they met Deacon Aspinwall, the banished 
one, and brothers Sanford and Balston, the latter now the innkeeper 

93- '4th Ser. Mass. Hist. Collections, vii, 278, 279. 'Force's 

Tract, Vol. iv, Tr. 7, p. 8. 'Lenthal was in August, 1640, within six 

months from his arrival, made a freeman upon the island, and during the same 



28 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

of the town, who with others gave them a meeting, listened to the read- 
ing of the church's letter, and gave satisfactory answers. The next day 
they visited Newport and were entertained by Coggershall, the dismissed 
member, who would not receive the church's letter unless they of the 
island were acknowledged to be a lawful church, which the deputation 
had no commission to do. 

Mrs. Hutchinson, of Portsmouth, refused to acknowledge the Boston 
church. Mrs. Dyre, who afterwards became a Friend and lost her life 
by it, acknowledged the church and desired communion with them; and 
Deacon Aspinwall, the only one of the compact of first settlers who had 
been banished from Massachusetts, was satisfied with the righteousness 
of the church's proceedings against him and others." 

Among the objections raised by the members who were under disci- 
pline were: That the church had first broken the covenant with the 
exiles; that the covenant binds no longer than a member remains with 
the church; that parents and wives being cast out of the church, neces- 
sity is laid upon others to go with them to supply their wants ; that they 
had been driven out of the country. To which the Deputies made the 
following: Answer ist. If the church should break covenant with you, 
yet that doth not loose the covenant between the church and you. Answer 
2d. Though some of the members of the church had a hand in his 
(Aspinwall's) censure and banishment, yet it follows not that the church 
should deal with them when he suffered justly for his errors and his 
misapplying of his doctrine, to raise up much trouble and commotion, to 
the great detraction both of church and commonwealth; therefore, we 
cannot see that the church hath violated their covenant with you or 
dissolved your covenant with us; therefore, brethren, do not walk like 
lambs in a large place, but return, that we may watch over you, for we 
seek not yours, but you and your good and peace. Answer 3d. The 
necessity to go with castout parents and wives to care for them was 
denied. Answer 4th. Mr. Winthrop affirms that his advice was not as 
Governor, nor as the mouth of the court, but only in Christian love, to 
depart for a time till they could give the court satisfaction. He answers 
he did not advise all to depart, for he persuaded Mr. Coddington ear- 
nestly to stay, and did undertake to make his peace with the court. 
Neither did the court banish or drive any away but two, Mr. Aspinwall 
and Mrs. Hutchinson. Some were under no offense at all with the court, 
as our Brother Hazard. 

Brother Hibbins promised and Brother Coddington accepted that the 
church covenant should be sent to them. The junior Hutchinson re- 
quested that he be dismissed from the covenant, but it was refused him, 
and he was advised to agree to the justice of the church's act in casting 
out his mother, Mrs. Annie Hutchinson, who, with Mr. Gorton, would 
under no conditions acknowledge the church, and were reported to be 
holding meetings in their houses.* 

On the I2th of March, 1640, the day before the deputation's departure, 
a meeting, presided over by Coddington, was held at Newport, attended 
by some of the up-island men. With only eighteen out of the seventy- 

mnnth of Auprust, 1640, he left the island and departed for England. 
*The deputation pot the names of the towns confused, sometimes calling one town 
by the name of the other ; this, probably, was the result of CoddinKton having the 
record books from Pocasset, which town had but eight months before changed 
the name to Portsmouth. "Aspinwall was later. Mar. 27. 1642, fully 

restored in the church. " He made," says Winthrop, " a very free and full 
acknowledgment of his error and seducement, and that with much detestation 
of his sin." Wheelright, who was banished and went to New Hampshire, also 
tendered his submission and was restored to the church. Mass. Records, in, 6. 
•The Boston Church, not being all agreed, deferred sending the covenant to them. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 29 

three Portsmouth freemen, only thirty-five from both towns, out of 
ninety only five out of nineteen of the first compact of settlers, but a 
small minority in every way present, it "agreed, by this body united 
and " embraced " the few present who were signers of the old church 
compact ' and proceeded as a court for both towns, although recognizing 
no one as a member of that government who became a freeman under 
the civil compact of government. They received as new menibers five 
of the latter who were present at the meeting, and disfranchised the 
five soon after the five had voted to sustain the union and it had been 
pronounced perfected.' The large majority of Portsmouth freemen were 
never allowed to belong to Coddington's body of citizens; yet at one of 
his later courts, claiming jurisdiction over them, it was facetiously 
" aereed " that they were " a democracy," " that is to say, it is in the 
power of the body of freemen, orderly assembled, or the major part of 
{hem, to make and constitute just laws." » They adopted this much of 
the Portsmouth government's methods of proceedings : That they 
would drop their titles of Judge and Elders; that the officers of the 
government should be Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants; 
and that Portsmouth continue to be the name of the town Ihey 
appointed courts, consisting of Magistrates and Jurors, for both towns, 
to determine all causes of action that should be presented. They also 
agreed that officers should be chosen by themselves for both towns, and 
that the Governor and two Assistants should be from one town and the 
Deputy Governor and two Assistants should be from the other town. 
Thev thereupon chose officers for both towns ; but instead of following 
the order they had suggested and adopted, that the towns should share 
the offices equally, they chose both the Governor, Coddington. and the 
Deputy Governor, Brenton, from those who belonged in Newport and 
were of that government. The office of an Assistant xyas, as a ruse, 
voted to ex-Governor Hutchinson, of Portsmouth, and then before the 
end of the term voted to their Elder, Nicholas Easton, of Newport. On 
account of the probable insurrection, an alarm was appointed, to which 
aU of the inhabitants of the island were commanded to answer at their 
peril' Sheffield states that the most important person (Governor 
Hutchinson) in what he styles the Gorton government abandoned it 
and petitioned to be reunited to the people of Newport. The statement 
that he so petitioned is an error. Those of Newport were the petitioners. 
Hutchhinson resisted at first, but finally yielded to the petitioner s per- 
suasions and " was embraced " by them.* 

Winthrop, in referring to the overthrow of the Portsmouth govern- 
ment, calls Hutchinson a weak man. He may not have considered that 
Hutchinson and his supporters were in an unfairly disadvantageous 
position, were without any grant for any land. They were possessed 
or dispossessed, according to the practice, by the vote of those who had 
gone to Newport and carried the record of their acts with them. Cod- 
din,gton unyieldingly held the Indian grant of the island and sought to 
obtain a patent for it to himself, to confirm his title." Hutchinson anri 
his followers v,^ere in the position of tenants, who would, in the event 01 

2d Ed. Winthroo, i, 396- CoddirRton's letter, 4th Ser. Mass. Collections, vi, r?T2- 
.20. Robert Keayne's MSS. notes, Archives Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d Ser Mass. 
Collection, x. 184. Ellis' Life of Annie H.itchinson, 328-rd6. ,;„v.l ^ivi,t, 

sp, I Rec i 119. »"They meant by it an equality of political nphts 

only among the members of the few or rulinof classes." Dorr in R. I. Hist. boc. 
Prnrppdincrc; New Ser iii, 230. '"R. I. Rec, 1, 100, 102. 

'Records ?' 10. ^The Church hath chosen Theophilus Easton their 

MaSrate.'for so they call him [their Elder, Nicholas Easton]. Coddington s 
letter to Winthrop. 4th Mass. Col., 278. "Records ., 103. 

*Records, i, 94. 100. 'Records, 1, 94- He represented to the English 



30 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Coddingtcn's further success, likely be evicted; and Hutchinson seems 
to have placed above every other consideration that of saving to others 
of Portsmouth, more than to himself, their rights in the land. 

Hutchinson was not chosen Assistant at tlieir next election. Had he 
been willing to accept it, they had no further use for him. Bailey men- 
tions the unfounded rumor referred to by Williams, " that Mrs. Hutchin- 
son opposed magistracy and persuaded her husband to lay down his 
office of Governor." This false charge of " opposition to magistracy '' 
was made by the church party, not only against her, but against Williams 
and against Gorton at the very time Gorton was filling the office of 
magistrate,* and against everyone who opposed the church magistrates. 
Mrs. Hutchinson opposed only these and gave her support to others, of 
whom her husband was one. She was opposed to the magistracy of 
Coddington, assuredly from the time he acknowledged to the Boston 
congregation that he erred in departing from their church at Boston, 
and she aided in deposing him from the Pocasset government. She, 
as Coddington complained, opposed his return as magistrate ; and she 
may have persuaded her husband to lay down the office he had accepted 
in the sinful alliance as assistant magistrate to the usurping church 
magistrate Coddington. 

In this assumption of Coddington at Newpwort to extend his govern- 
ment to and over Portsmouth there were present, as we have seen, but 
five of the original compact of first settlers, and a still smaller minority 
of the whole people than of those he had made freemen. There were 
upon mainland and island, prior to the charter, no other freemen than 
those who were made freemen by a compact of settlers. Those who 
were made freemen by the Portsmouth government were not present 
nor admitted to a voice in Coddington's proceedings, and it is clear that 
he had no rightful jurisdiction over the Portsmouth people.' 

The return of the deputation to Boston was within four days after 
the Newport meeting, at which Coddington assumed to be the Governor 
over the whole island. The Deputies do not, in the account preserved, 
mention their stopping again on their return at Taunton. Yet, at about 
this time, a number of officials from Massachusef-.^ and the island met 
there and arranged for disposing of their troublesome opponents. 

Taunton, first settled in 1638 by Captain William Poole and his sister, 
Lady Elizabeth, was a border town upon the main road between the 
island and Massachusetts, and M^as a convenient and popular resort for 
men of public affairs and for general travellers. At different times 
and upon various occasions there met here [some of them under Com- 
missions from the Governors and Assistants of Massachusetts] Boston, 
Roxboro, Salem pnd other Massachusetts magistrates and ministers, 
and ex-Governor Prence, Deputy Governor Brenton and other Plymouth 
and island churchmen and politicians. Captain Poole's son John mar- 
ried the daughter of Deputv Governor Brenton of the island, and later 
Brenton bought a farm at Taunton and for a time made it his home. 
Here Coddington took refuge and passed much of his time when he later 

rov^rnment that he owned it. Scq. 'Gorton, as AVinthrop said. '' acknowl- 

erlo-ed magistracy to be an ordinance of God in the world, as marnape. za. to. 
Wirthron ii jy. 'It is impossible to do full jujstice to the men who 

constituted the Model Civil Government, or to the measures they pursjied ; tor 
Coddint^ton's Rovernmcnt, bv its connivance, secured the records, and the names 
and official stations of Hutchinson. Gorton and others, and many things un^avor- 
to the Coddintjtons were eliminated from them. None of the names ot tnose 
who were siijners and members of the Civil Compact, and only the names ol the 
MX who were original members of the First Comnact of Coddington s were 
allowed to remain in his records; leaving us with but the little information ot 
service to us, which escaped the vigilance of Coddington s government and the 
little which is obtained from accidental sources. R. I. Rec, 1, 71. 75. »i- ^l"S 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 31 

was compelled to make flight from the island. The town received an 
unusual degree of attention from Prence, and under him and the laws 
against foreigners and strangers was the scene of many harrowing 
acts of persecution.* 

A snare, instigated by the men at the Taunton gatherings, similar 
to that which had in the Plymouth proceedings against Gorton's maid 
served so effectually in disposing of those against whom no charge of 
crime would be effectual, was laid upon the island for Gorton and like 
unsubmissive islanders.'' 

Three months now had passed since Coddington's assumption of gov- 
ernment over Portsmouth. Gorton had lived there for eighteen months, 
" disturbing no man, conducting himself civilly to all men and court- 
eously." Notwithstanding the defection of Hutchinson from the model 
government at Portsmouth, it was supported by Gorton and nearly all 
of the Portsmouth people, and they maintained it and its courts for the 
town, which courts were the only ones recognized as courts there by the 
people. A quarterly or circuit court of Coddington's, one of those 
appointed for the town of Portsmouth at the Newport meeting, v;as 10 
make an attempt in Portsmouth at sitting. A difficulty was to get causes 
for trial before this court. Its summons would not be heeded by any 
Portsmouth people. Action was brought into it by the following pro- 
ceeding: William Brenton, one of its Judges, who was one of the 
Elders with Coddington that had the year before been put out at Ports- 
mouth, who went with him to Newport and was Elder there with him, 
and who was at the Newport meeting declared, as a resident of Ports- 
mouth, Deputy Governor over the whole island, himself made a com- 
plaint and himself an arrest of a house-maid of Gorton's, and this for 
an alleged trespass and assault on a woman. He arraigned the maid 
before this court, himself and Coddington presiding. As at Plymouth, 
Samuel Gorton now came to the aid of his servant. The kindness of 
his heart prompted him to appear in this court in which she was detained, 
whose jurisdiction he and the people denied, to release or defend her."* 

Here, as at Plymouth, there was no cause against Gorton. Here 
there was a self-constituted court sitting with the intent of following 
the Plymouth course and condemn him for contempt when he should 
appear in it. 

We find no letter over Coddington's name describing his hoped for 
" end to it." But an anonymous informant gave an account, which is 
the only account ever said to have been given by a witness to it. None 
of the many witnesses to this — it was no trial — and the scenes following 
it ever owned this account or gave another of it ; and, too, while William 
Arnold and many others such as he, who were witnesses, were diligently 
proclaiming everything that could cast discredit on Gorton, and that 
boldly over their names. 

From the anonymous account, in what no doubt is Winthrop's manu- 
script, and the conditions presented by Coddington sitting with his court 
of trial at Portsmouth, where more than three-quarters of the inhabit- 
ants denied its jurisdiction, it is clear that there occurred there much 
of what would occur to-day if the magistrates of one town attempted 
to sit in another. Gorton vehemently protested against the unfairness 
and illegality of the proceedings. Coddington called upon his followers 

Life of Annie Hntcliinson, 326. *Ante. Plymouth Rec, i and ii. Plain 

Dealing, 3d Mass. Conections, iii, 107. R. I. Col., iii, 208. 'R. I. Hist. 

Col., iii, 2g8. R. I. Hist. Tr.. 17. p. 57. etc. Baylie's Hist. Plymouth, i, 285-290. 
Force's iv, tract 7. Lechford's Plain Dealings, 3d Mass. Collections, iii, 95, 106, 
107, 402, 403. '"Judge Brayton, Rider's Tract. 17, 'The first 

preserved storj' of the fracas was given by one of Coddington's henchmen, and 



32 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

in the room to eject him. Gorton in turn called upon those of the home 
government, who had subscribed to the King and his well-known laws, 
to take away Coddington. Coddington's men laid hold upon Gorton 
to remove him, while Randall Holden, John Wickes and others, the 
Portsmouth people, stopped the way. The court was, it appears, without 
a trial broken up into a hand-to-hand conflict, Coddington, in his zeal, 
personally engaging in it.' The Portsmouth people, among them Gorton' 
with clothes torn, for the time the victors, pursued Coddington in his 
flight. Coddington, however, had come prepared for war by encamping 
near by some soldiers, and by calling upon them partly restored his 
order. John Wickes, Randall Holden and a number of others, most 
substantial men of Portsmouth, were anathematized by Coddington's 
court for denying its legality and jurisdiction. 

Gorton and others, leaders of his party, some of whom were of the 
first purchasers of Aquidneck, abandoned the island. The houses and 
persons of the remaining Coddington opponents were then searched 
[by those who had complained of the like treatment to themselves 
when they were in Massachusetts] and a confiscation made of their 
arms. Gorton and those who left the island with him went to Provi- 
dence.' Clark, the leader of the movement for settling upon Aquidneck 
and for whom Williams secured the island of the Sachems, who had up 
to this time yielded to Coddington and been his pastor, now broke from 
him, gave up the settled church, joined the Liberal party and never after 
took part in government under Coddington. Lenthal, who came but 
about six months before at Coddington's call for helps, as the teacher, 
had with the others taken part against him, and all within a few weeks 
had a rupture with the church regarding baptism, had a release from his 
position, had a free school opened' and had been compelled to close it, 
now, with the others who had taken part against Coddington, left the 
island; and Nicholas Easton was fined for breach of order and left out of 
office.' 

The breaking away of Clark and Lenthal, and the establishing by 
Lenthal of the free school in the summer of 1640, probably was the 
beginning of the Baptist Church on the island, though we find no full 
account of its organization until some time after. Although it does not 
appear that Coddington again attempted to hold a court of trials at 
Portsmouth, the others who were leaders in the Liberal party, who 
tried to remain to live there, among them Mrs. Hutchinson and her 
family of sixteen and her friends, were so continually harrassed and 
threatened with being taken and sent for discipline to Massachusetts 
that they became terrorized and left the island. John Wickes, William 
Aspinwall, Richard Carder, Randall Holden, Edward and William 
Hutchinson, John Porter, Thomas Savage and Sampson Shotten were, 
some of them imprisoned, most of them disfranchised, and all of them 
and their families and friends with other opponents of Coddington, 
including a large share of the original compact of purchasers, plundered 

is the one from which the others are taken. By his story, they, of course, whipped 
Gorton ; but, as the story proceeds, it reveals the certainty that the unpreserved 
accounts by Gorton's friends told that they whipped Coddington ; for it sets 
forth the fact that, although Coddinsrton did make Gorton run, he didn't let Gorton 
catch him. N. E. H. and G. Recr. 'These " intoxicated sectaries," 

Mather wrote, swarmed over into the mnin, where they also purchased some 
tracts of land now covered with the towns of Providence and Warwick, for all 
of which they obtained at last a charter. Magnalia, Book vii. 'That 

is one in which the lil^eral studies were taught. Au<t., 1640. Sheffield's Paper 
35. Thomas Litchfield, in his manuscript of "Plain Dealinsrs," wrote "Mr. 
Lenthal his Controversy " at the head of his article on " The Dissolution of the 
Church at Newport, the Lack of Employment of Clark and Lenthal, and Gorton's 
Departure for Providence." *R. L Collections, vii, 330. 'Williams' 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 33 

some of them imprisoned, most of them disfranchised, and all of them 
and their families and friends with other opponents of Coddington, in- 
cluding a large share of the original compact of purchasers, plundered 
of their lands and dwellings and driven from Aquidneck. For the time 
and number, in proportion to population, no exodus from Massachusetts 
exceeded the exodus under Coddington from the island. 

It was among the terms of Coddington's return that the towns should 
each choose and have their own magistrates for the affairs of their own 
towns. Coddington's assumption was that of a general court, the law- 
maker and superior judiciary for the island. There was no prospect 
that the large majority of Portsmouth people all opposed to him would 
ever submit to his government for the further reason that he disfran- 
chised or debarred them from voting for or against him, he accepting 
as his electors only his pledged friends. 

Williams, in a letter written some years after, thus refers to it: "At 
Rhode Island, how many instances come therein which I have ready by 
me of Coddington : a worldly man, a selfish man, nothing for public, but 
all for himself and private. I will not mention particulars at Ports- 
mouth and Newport, of which I have told him as I had opportunity." " 

Gorton, in a letter to Nathaniel Morton, written some years after, 
makes these references to the Plymouth and Portsmouth troubles : " I 
say no more of this now, though I can say much more, with the testi- 
mony of men's consciences; but I have been silent to cover other men's 
shame and not my own ; for I could wish to be a bondsman so long as 
I live upon the face of the earth, in human respects, that all the agita- 
tions and transactions between the men of New England and myself 
were in print without diminution or extenuation. It should be a crown, 
yea, a diadem, upon my grave if the truth, in more public or more 
private agitation, were but in prose, though not in poetry, as it was acted 
in all the places wherein you seek to blemish me. I perceive what 
manner of honor you put upon me in [Aquidneck Island] Rhode Island, 
which the actors may be ashamed of, and you to be the herald. I have 
been silent of these things done at Plymouth and Rhode Island and 
elsewhere, and am still in many respects, but have not forgotten them. 

"And I have heard that some of Plymouth, then in place, were insti- 
gators of the island. I could name the parties of both places, being met 
together at Cohannet (Taunton). I carried myself obedient to the 
government at Plymouth, so far as became me at the least, to the great 
wrong of my family, more than is above said, as can be made to appear 
if required; for I understood they had commission wherein authority 
was derived, which authority I reverenced; but Rhode Island at that 
thne had none; therefore, no authority legally derived to deal with me; 
neither had they the choice of the people, hut set up themselves." ' 

The aversion Gorton expressed to the government of Coddington on 
the island, we see, was not alone that it had no charter. He asserted 
what was true, that there was no kind of right in Coddington's claim 
to sovereignty; that absolute sovereignty could be obtained only by 
individual commission from the English government; and without this, 
with or without a charter, legal sovereignty was bestowed only by a 
majority of all such inhabitants as were by the laws of England freemen. 
Coddington had no commission from either the Crown or [except for 
the first few weeks of his residence on the island] from the majority 
of English freemen. 

letter, Proc. R. I. H. Soc, 1875-6. 'Force's Tract No. 7, Vol. iv. This 

has been artfully so quoted of Gorton as to make him appear to ordinary readers 
as of the time and an opponent of the government of the State. The reference 
is to the island of Aquidneck long before it was named Rhode Island. It is to 
be regretted that when the State arose it was not named Narragansett. 



34 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Gorton was none less practical than other men in accepting the fair 
necessities of the situation, and in paying reverence to any government 
that had the choice of the people, for the time, until firmly planted by 
a charter from England. The proof of this is absolute, he having been 
the leader in organizing the non-chartered model civil government on 
the island, which was established by the voice of the whole people/ 



CHAPTER III. 

Coddington's and Benton's coquetry with the Massachusetts government — Moosh- 
asuck, or Providence, settled by Roger Williams — He obtains written grants for 
it and for Aquidneck Island — He divides the land to please the objectors to his 
liberal policy — William Arnold lays large claims to lands — Inception of the 
fraudulent land claims, difficulties resulting from them and the inability to 
settle the disputes regarding the claims. 

It was the naturally indulged hope of the Massachusetts magistrates 
and of the visiting elders that Coddington would at a convenient time 
submit himself and the island to their government; but on September 
13, 1640, within about six months after the return of the Massachusetts 
" helps," who were sent to Coddington, from their visit to the island, 
Coddington and Brenton, as Governor and Deputy Governor of the 
island, the new titles they had appropriated from the Hutchinson and 
Gorton government, elevated with their success and unmindful of their 
obligations to their colleagues, Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts 
and his Magistrates and Elders, joined with the Governors of Hartford 
and New Haven in a letter to Winthrop concerning the latter's policy 
toward the Indians, and advising him to join with them in a course of 
proceedings. This was rightly considered by Winthrop and the Massa- 
chusetts court a freak of obstreperousness on the part of the newly 
fledged leaders, and the Massachusetts court accordingly resolved that, 
while they agreed with them in regard to the suggested course of pro- 
ceedings, they refused to have any correspondence with them as men 
not to be capitulated with by us for themselves or for the people of the 
island. The Massachusetts court also assented to all the propositions 
laid down in the aforesaid letter, " but delivered their answer to New 
Haven and Connecticut men only, excluding Mr. Coddington and Mr. 
Brenton."' 

As before mentioned, Roger Williams, on account of the opposition 
against him by the Massachusetts people, had been obliged to leave there 
and settle in Plymouth. Differences also arising between him and the 
Plymouth people, he left there [Dr. Bentley, ist Mass. H. S. Col., vi, 
246; R. I. H. S. Col., vii, 72], returning to Massachusetts, from whence 
he was banished. In anticipation of his expulsion from Massachusetts 
he, in the years 1634 and 163s. had several treaties with Cannonicus 
and Miantinomi, the two Chief Sachems of the Narragansetts, regard- 
ing lands for a settlement in Narragansett Bay,' and they granted him 
the lands of Mooshasuck: it was a verbal grant. Early in 1635-6 he 
with only a young lad, Thomas Anrrell, then in his employ, sailed down 
the river toward the home of the Sachems, whom he had accompanied 
there in the preceding year." When reaching a cove, he describes, the 
Sachems, in expectation of his coming, having gone out to him, met him 
with loud demonstrations of joy. Others, in other boats, followed along 
out of curiosity and the hope of gain. Of these who followed, he says, 

*Samuel Gorton by Judge Brayton. 'Mass. Rec, i. 305- "Williams' 

statement, R. I. H. S. Col., vii, 8s- Hinton, Knapp & Choules Hi^t. U. S.. 1. 107 
note. "Foster Papers, R. I. H. S. Col., vii, 80. 'Williams, R. I. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 35 

he gave leave to Harris, destitute; Smith, banished; Wickes, poor; and 
a lad Verin, to join him. And a settlement was in May or June, 1636, 
made by this company, Williams, Angell, Harris, Smith, Wickes, Verin, 
numbering six. Williams says: "I, in a sense of God's merciful provi- 
dence to me in my distress, called the place Providence." He had no 
partners. It was, he says, granted him in exchange principally for 
friendly service to the Indian Sachems Cannonicus and Miantinomi, 
and what cost there was attending it was borne by him alone.* His 
object was to parcel it among such as were on account of religious 
differences denied land in Massachusetts. A " compact in a civil way " ' 
for government, by consent and arbitration, was formed ; and members 
admitted by Williams into a fellowship with him in the land, to be by 
them parcelled out at a small cost paid into the town fund, to all men 
of moral lives and refugees from religious persecution. 

Among others who followed were two men William Arnold and Bene- 
dict Arnold. They were Massachusetts' agents : Benedict also merchants' 
agent for arms, ammunition and liquors. During May 1637 a trouble 
arose; regarding which as Roger Williams writes, a boisterous and des- 
perate man, the young Verin, having assaulted his wife so furiously with 
blows as to endanger her life, because of her attending religious meetings, 
the town council disfranchised him until he should amend his conduct. 
Benedict Arnold supported Verin and with poor wit derided the Williams 
or town covenant, asserting that as Verin dealt with his wife according 
to his conscience it would be a violation of the covenant to punish or 
restrain him, (Book Notes Vol. 24, Nos. i, 2, 3, 4, and following.) 

Other men were, as they came, admitted into the association. Not 
all joined, and some who did join parted from it, some returned to 
Massachusetts; so but two of those who came with Williams are among 
the " we six which came first " to whom " the first portions of grass 
and meadows were appropriated ; " and but one of those, Harris, among 
the first twelve, viz., William Harris, John Throckmorton, William 
Arnold, Stuckley Westcott, John Greene, Thomas Olney, Richard 
Waterman, Ezekiel Holliman, Francis Weston, Robert Cole, William 
Carpenter, Thomas James, whom, Williams states, were the first twelve 
admitted into fellowship with him in the land. These men did not pay 
anything to Williams, but those afterwards admitted, and the member- 
ship soon increased to over a hundred, paid thirty dollars each into 
the town fund, and from this fund thirty pounds were given him on 
account of his time and expenses.* 

On August I, 1637, John Greene, one of the twelve above named, a 
surgeon by profession, was taken into custody by Massachusetts officers 
and bound by their court in one hundred marks for speaking contempt- 
uously of their Magistrates. Although Williams sent a letter to Win- 
throp interceding for him, he was on September 19th fined twenty 
pounds. Following this, letters were sent by Greene and others to the 
Massachusetts court, which incurred their further displeasure, and, it 
appearing to the court that others of Providence were in the same cor- 
rupt judgment and practice, it was ordered that they should keep from 
their jurisdiction under penalties as the court should see fit.^ A number 
of landless or new men subscribed probably during this August' to the 
government in the town book, among them Benedict Arnold. William 
Arnold earlier had been admitted to the association of government and 

Rec, i, 22, 25. Nar. Club, vi. 305, 306. R. I. H. Tr., 14. 'Williams. 

May 17, 1637. Nar. Club, v, 4-6, Book notes, xxii, iii. "'Soul Liberty," 

by Sidney S. Rider, Prov. T2. 'Williams, in Deed of Dec. 20, 1661. 

^Mass. Rec, i, 224. Turner's Greenes in Col. Hist. Greene Family. 'The 

subscription Williams wrote for the men without families. Judge Brayton, Tr. 



36 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

a fellowship in the land. To this association he ever adhered in name, 
but was disloyal to it from the beginning, and ever both secretly and 
openly in hand with Benedict in envious clamors and efforts to hamper 
and destroy it and turn over to Massachusetts the government and the 
land. 

The grant as first made to Williams was a verbal one, but on " the 
24th of the first month, commonly called March, in the second year of 
our planting," in 1637-8, Williams wrote and these Sachems executed 
an evidence of the grant "to Roger Williams;" and Miantinomi went, 
Williams says, " on account of the envious clamor of some against 
himself, with him and other white men around the granted tract and 
sat its bounds." ' 

At the time of the settlement of New England, and prior to the death 
of Charles the First, the King was the only landholder in absolute fee 
in England. All lands were vested in the Sovereign and were parcelled 
out to his military and political supporters. These feudal lords held 
them, though subject to escheat, in perpetuity from father to son. These 
lords, who were also legislators, judges and executioners, in turn par- 
celled the lands among their supporters the occupants or vassals, who 
could not transmit it to their posterity. With the Cromwellian revolu- 
tion began the annihilation of vassalage and the ownership of land by 
the individual, a title in fee simple. With this change a few certain 
men of Providence, who had shown a desire to become feudal lords 
and who were quick to see the value which individual possession of the 
land would be to them, objected to Williams' liberal policy in admitting 
so many to share in its distribution ; and " as a peace offering," Williams 
says, " and that he might be free " to pursue his intended policy at 
Providence he, on October 8th, 1638, made to the first thirteen, that ls, 
himself and the twelve whom he had admitted to fellowship with him 
as town trustees, a written conveyance of the land in the original 
grant ; and then he with them made a written conveyance to themselves, 
as trustees for a new town in which they might be more guarded in their 
allotments, of all that part of the land west of a line afterwards to be 
established. The Williams grant was, after this, given two names : The 
whole of it, the " Grand Purchase of Providence," and the western part 
of it, the " Pawtuxet Purchase." Williams showed his disrelish of this 
in designating these twelve associates as " the first monopolizing twelve," 
though eight of them did not follow the leaders in the monopoly. But 
four only of them made claim of individual ownership in the newly 
set-off lands.* 

William Arnold and his son Benedict Arnold and son-in-law William 
Carpenter and one Robert Cole immediately settled upon a part of what 
they called the Pawtuxet purchase, and newcomers were not admitted 
as landholders. Benedict Arnold associated with himself twelve men 
in rivalry with Williams, and claimed to be the government of the people 
of Providence. Their's were compulsory methods. Complaints were 
made by these men that the Providence people were trespassing on their 
purchase. Williams denying their pretensions, the cry arose, " What 
is Roger Williams; we will have present bounds set," and the matter 
of setting a line between Providence and Pawtuxet was referred to four 
men, one of whom was William Harris, who became leader for the 
Pawtuxet claimants. 

In July, 1640, a report of failure to settle the difficulty was made by 

17. 'Nar. Club, vi, 390. R. I. H. Tr., 2d Ser., 4. PP- 23. 5i. Lands of 

R. I., Sidney S. Rider. *2d. Ser. R. I. H. Tr., 4. PP- 1-12. 46. 65. " Brought 

the murmuring aftercomers and monopHzinp twelve to a oneness by arbitration. 
Williams' Book Notes, xix, p. i. ist Ser. R. I. H. Tr, 14, p. 58- The 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 37 

them with propositions for the location of the Hne of separation, for a 
system of government in which five town managers should dispose of 
affairs by compulsory arbitration, and that " the town by five men shall 
give every man a deed of all his lands lying within the bounds of the 
plantation, to hold it for after ages." These propositions, in a paper 
dated July 27th, purporting to be a combination agreement, printed 
among the Early Records, was never acted upon by the inhabitants or 
landholders of Providence, or agreed to, or so signed, or ever recorded 
in Providence. We will lay it open when it was recorded ten years 
later in Massachusetts. The earliest deed now known is one from 
William Harris to William Arnold, dated August 29, 1640, and, 
although we find no record of the deed from the town to Harris, it is 
probable that he received one, the first their town committee granted 
under the proposed order. The second deed known is from the town 
of Providence to William Arnold, under date of April 14th, 1641. The 
recording of other deeds folowed." 

The scheme of the Pawtuxet claimants to acquire the lands developed 
the remarkable adroitness of William Harris, who, as their leader with 
claims and processes, " robbed us," Roger Williams says, " even by a 
kind of force ever since the birth of the town," and so kept the honest 
landholders unsettled and alarmed that they, Williams said, " lived in 
no order but rout, as Harris beasts, as he calls all who cross him." " 



CHAPTER IV. 

Gorton's arrival in Providence — Arnold's complaint — Gorton retires from Prox'i- 
dence to land in Papaquinapaug — The Arnold Pawtuxet claimants forge papers 
to further extend their land claims — They become subjects of Massachusetts 
to obtain for the enforcement of their claims that government's assistance — 
The Massachusetts government commissions Benedict Arnold to obtain from 
Miantinomi his submission and cession oi the Narragansett lands to them — 
Miantinomi sells Occupesuatuxet to Greene — Providence notified by the Massa- 
chusetts government of their jurisdiction over them and cited to trial at 
Boston — Gorton replies to Massachusetts' notice to Providence — Gorton buys 
Shawomet, or Warwick — Its settlement, government and town orders. 

The people of Providence had for about three years been engaged in 
their land disturbances when Gorton arrived there. He, after settling 
there, did not have any personal difficulties with anyone. One of the 
men who gladly hailed his arrival there was John Greene, surgeon, 
whose experience with the Massachusetts magistrates we have related. 
The settling down of Gorton and his island friends, Holden, Shotten, 
Potter and Wickes, at Providence would be an ally to Williams' party 
there, whom, Arnold said, were already " so many ; " and would 
strengthen the resistance to the pretensions of the Pawtuxet claimants; 
and Arnold, who with his friends had secured the positions of town 
managers, opposed their reception to the town privileges, to either hold 
land or vote. A meeting of the five town managers was held on May 
25, 1 641, in which the subject of admitting Gorton and his friends 
to the town was considered, some of the managers addressing the meet- 
ing- in Gorton's favor. These addresses were not preserved, and we are 
again compelled to gather from his enemies' accounts. Arnold addressed 
the meeting, expressing his dissent from what those favorable to 

Forgeries," Williams' Deed and " The Lands of R. Island," by Sidney S. Rider. 
"Nar. Club and R. I. H. Tr. 14. Williams said Harris' boundless bounds were 
impossible to fix, hence we lived in rout until 1643, when he procured the charter. 



38 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Gorton had said, and asked : " What may we expect if he could get him- 
self in with and amongst us, where are so many, as we see, ready to 
tread us under their feet, whom he calls his friends?" 

To be freed from these embarrassments and to avoid the contentions 
the people of Providence were engaged in, Gorton and a number of 
those who were attached to him, Holden, Carder, Shotten, Potter and 
Wickes from Portsmouth, and Warner and Power of Providence, 
quietly retired from the early settled portion of Providence and pur- 
chased a claim of Robert Cole, one of the Pawtuxans, to a parcel of 
land upon Papaquinapaug river, a small stream issuing from Masha- 
paug pond, flowing through what is now Roger Williams Park into 
Pawtuxct river. Here at Papaquinapaug, outside of but adjoining the 
early settlement, they resided during the fall and winter of 1641 and 
summer of 1642, built houses and bestowed their labors to raise up 
means to maintain their wives and little ones.' 

A few months after this the town managers appointed arbitrators for 
Francis Weston of Providence, one of Williams' twelve, who, witn John 
Greene and others of Williams' twelve, did not agree to the Pawtuxans' 
methods in an action by the Pawtuxan settlers for trespass upon their 
claimed land, who rendered a judgment against him for fifteen pounds 
and proceeded to levy by execution upon his cattle. Greene questioned 
the fairness of the proceedings, and joined with Weston, who, with 
perhaps six or seven others of Williams' company, aided to resist; 
whereupon a complaint was, on November 17th, 1641, drawn up by 
Benedict Arnold to the Massachusetts court against John Greene and 
others, including Samuel Gorton, who had championed their cause and 
was the most able advocate of their rights among them. Arnold's com- 
plaint stated that it was sought by Pawtuxet men to attach on Francis 
Weston's cattle and impound them, when the cry was raised, " Help, 
sir, help," and " they hurried away the cattle," and " so they do at any 
time if any of theirs is attached." It closed by asking aid " to bring 
wrongdoers to satisfaction." This complaint and petition was written 
by Benedict Arnold and signed by himself and but the Pawtuxan claim- 
ants William Harris, William Arnold and son-in-law William Carpenter, 
of those who had been of Williams' company, in all by twelve men, 
Arnold's company. It was not " a petition of the people of Providence," 
as it was falsely headed. It was unofficial and unknown at the time to 
the people of Providence, and it represented nobody but the petitioners.' 
The Massachusetts magistrates, however, in reply advised them to 
" submit themselves to some jurisdiction," " then we had a calling to 
protect them." * 

In the August 1642 sessions of the Massachusetts Court, Benedict 
Arnold was engaged with their other officers to visit Miantinomi, the 
Chief Sachem of the Narragansetts, to compel his attendance at Boston 
to induce him to deny the sale he had made of the land to Williams, 
to submit himself and tribe with their lands to Massachusetts or to show 
what right he had to his lands and dominion.* He appeared at their 

'On April 9, 1662, Samuel Gorton deeded, his wife Mary joininc;, Papaquinapaug 
land, which was passed from Robert Cole unto himself by a deed bearing date 
the loth of Jan., 1641. Early Record Rook, iii, p. 013- Williams said: "We 
lived in no order but rout " from the annoyance of the Pawtuxans, but the pur- 
chase by Gorton of one of their claims should have secured relief from them. 
'R. I. H. S. Col., ii, 101-193. A fraudulent copy of the petition with Williams' 
name attached ; a fraudulent Williams letter : and a fraudulent Presentment of 
the Grand Jury were all in 16.16 sent by Coddinsiton to Winslow in Mass. for his 
use in England, which he took there and published in his charges airainst the 
people and charter of the Providence Plantations. °ist. Winthrop, ii, 59. 

*Mas3. Rec, ii, 24. Palfrey, i, 121. 'Simp. Def., 1646, p. 14- R- I. H. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 39 

court, but, true to his friends of the Providence Plantations, he would not 
deny his sales, defended his rights and refused to submit anything to 
Massachusetts ; whereupon the court forbade him to sell land without its 
permission and ordered the disarmment of his people. 

The Pawtuxans extended their claims; the Sachems now complained; 
they had occupied and built upon land for which no right had been pur- 
chased.* The new town grant, it will be remembered, was all the land in 
the original Indian grant to Williams which lay west of the Providence 
settlement. That is all the land west of a line running north and soi:th 
which the claimants desired to establish, which could appear to have been 
in the original. With this in view the claimants had obtained the 
original deed of Williams and added to it a memorandum which, pretend- 
ing it was done from Williams request by the Sachems, interpreted the 
stated bounds upon the streams to mean all the land bounding upon the 
stream in its whole length and upon all its branches. The signatures of 
Miantinomi and Williams which were appended to this memorandum 
were forgeries. Williams says regarding it: "After Miantinomi had 
sat our bounds in his own person, because of the envious clamor of some 
against myself, one amongst us, not I, recorded a testimony or memo- 
randum of a courtesy, added, upon request, by the Sachems, in these 
words, ' up streams without limits ; * so far all the meadows and at last 
all the uplands must be drawn into this accidental courtesy, and yet upon 
no consideration given, nor the Sachems knowledge, or hand or witness; 
nor date." The date of 1639 was after this forged to it.* 

On September 8th following, the Pawtuxet claimants, William Arnold, 
Benedict Arnold, Robert Cole and William Carpenter, but, excepting in 
this instance William Harris, four in number, undeterred by the greatest 
indignation expressed and the strongest opposing efforts made by Wil- 
liams, Throckmorton, Greene, Wickes, Waterman, Holliman, Gorton, 
Holden, Brown, and nearly all the other land holding, reliable people 
in Providence or Williams government, and regardless of the great 
wrong they were inflicting on the whole people, treasonably violated 
their pledge to the compact of government they had subscribed to with 
Williams, and submitted their person and lands to the jurisdiction of the 
Massachusetts colony. They were accepted by Massachusetts " as the 
place," Providence, over which Massachusetts now, by virtue of the sub- 
mission of these four men, assumed jurisdiction or government, " was 
like to be of use to them if they had occasion to go out against the 
natives. It gave an opening into Narragansett Bay." And the new sub- 
jects were at once commissioned as ofificers to preserve order and exe- 
cute the warrants of the Massachusetts courts in their newly claimed 
dominion Providence.' 

The claim of Massachusetts to jurisdiction over Providence, based on 
the submission of William and Benedict Arnold and Cole and Car- 
penter, these four people, is surprising. " What would Massachusetts 
have said if the English government had treated Morton and Radcliff as 
competent to surrender the political rights of the Massachusetts 
colony?"' The manifest injustice of the means resorted to by the ene- 
mies of Williams and Gorton confirm the suspicion that in their professed 
desire to establish an orderly government they were not honest nor the 
claims they set up just. Robert Cole, now by this, one of the Massachu- 
setts peace officers in Providence, had shortly before, when at Roxbury 

Tr., 2d. Ser., 4, p. 6g. 'The memorandum, Judge Staples says, was 

written by Thomas James, Annals of Providence. " The Forgeries " 

with " Deed Given to Roger Williams," and " The Lands of R. Island," by Sidney 
S. Rider, Prov. R. I. H. S. Col., v, 2T. Nar. Club, vi, 387-394- 'Mass. 

Rec, ii, 26, 27. ist Winthrop, ii, 35. 'Doyle's Puritan Colonies, i, 328. 



40 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

in their colony, been disfranchised by them for drunkenness and sen- 
tanccd to wear a D of red cloth, continuously displayed for a year, upon 
his outward garment. '" Even the astute magistrates in Boston must 
have smiled to sec Robert Cole in the attitude of plaintiff and asking 
their intercession for the establishment of an orderly and quiet govern- 
ment.* 

" The people of Providence had made great sacrifices in providing a 
refuge for soul liberty and were strongly opposed to this proceeding of a 
small minority of their number, yet the Bay colony did not regard the 
wrongfulness of the request profered to it. It Vv'as desirous of breaking 
up the refuge of heresy by the " fresh river of Mooshasuck and Wanas- 
quatucket, and also an opening to its own citizens a passage to the Naf- 
rangansett Bay." The conduct of the Massachusetts colony in extend- 
ing its laws beyond its chartered limits and into the midst of an inde- 
pendent colony was rightly regarded by Gorton and his friends as a 
flagrant act of usurpation." " The operations under the acts of the 
Arnolds and their partners and Massachusetts, so dangerous and damag- 
ing to the peace and prosperity of the Narragansetts Bay inhabitants, 
lasted sixteen years.* Harris did not attach himself with the others of 
the party to Massachusetts, yet he more than the others appears the 
genius of the claims and of the methods of " rout " which were pursued 
so fiercely. 

When the settlers at Papaquinapaug began to make improvements 
upon their purchase and on the outlying wild land there, Arnold and his 
Pawtuxet partners appeared with claims for trespass against them. 
Gorton said: "These pretended subjects of Massachusetts thus far 
fetched, had learned this device, that whereas some of us had small par- 
cels of land laid out to build houses upon and plant corn, and all the rest 
lay commons and undivided, as the custom of the country for most part 
is, they would permit us no more land to build upon or to feed our cattle, 
unless we would keep upon that which they confess to be our proper 
right ; and they would of no division but by foot or by the inch, and that 
we could neither have room to set a house but part of it would stand on 
their land,' nor put a cow to grass hut immediately her bounds were 
broken; and then presently must the one be pulled down and the other 
put in pound to make satisfaction, or until satisfaction be made for both. 
So by this unreasonable and palpable slight of their pretended subjects, 
together with the power of their so irregular a government, we plainly 
perceived a snare was laid to entrap us again ; not only to hinder to pro- 
vide for our families, but to bereave us again of what God through our 
labors and industries had raised up unto us as means to maintain our 
families." * 

The hostility of the Pautuxet partners in not less degree was displayed 
toward Greene and others at Providence, who yet remained there and 
contended for their rights there. Unable longer to endure the annoy- 
ance of the Pawtuxet partners and to avoid further contentions at Prov- 
idence, Greene and a number of those who were attached to him con- 
cluded upon a removal. On October ist. 1642, Miantinomi sold to John 
Greene the lands south of the Providence and Pawtuxet grant of Wil- 
liams; separated from it by the Pawtuxet river, known as Occupesua- 
tuxet, with adjoining meadows and a small island; the deed being signed 
also by Socononico, the local Sachem.* 

•Pryant's Hist. U. S. Mass. Rec. i, 107-T12. R. I. Collections, ii. 50. 
"Mackey's Life of Samuel Gorton, 2d Ser. Spark's Am. Biopraphies, v, 342, •?4r 
etc. 'Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, iii. =Wintlirop's Book of News 

said that Gorton, perceiving the Pawtuxet men's titles to be weak, went and built 
houses upon their poQc^-esions. »R. I. Collection, ii, 47. 52. 

*Proc. R. I. H. Soc, 1887-8, p. 49. Williams said: "We lived in no order but 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 41 

The Massachuesetts Court, on October 28th following, agitated by the 
Narragansett chiefs' disregard of their orders by the recent further sale 
of land to the heretics, and acting by virtue of the claim of jurisdiction 
acquired through the submission of the Arnolds, sent by the hand of one 
of them, their newly made officers, a notice directed to " Our Neighbors 
of Providence," asserting their sovereignty over them and citing them 
to trial for complaints to the court at Boston ; with the warning if you 
shall proceed to any violence you must not blame us if we shall take like 
course to right them." 

The reply to this notice, although the notice was directed particularly 
to Providence, but to Greene and all the land-holding settlers who re- 
sisted the Pawtuxans and Massachusetts pretensions, was believed to 
have been written by Gorton, although signed also by Greene, and in all 
by twelve men, the backbone of Williams' government, living in Provi- 
dence and its outlying places." 

"Now brought face to face, as it were, with the arbitrary power in the 
Bay, these loyal men, true to their allegiance to the crown of England, 
desiring above all things that which the Massachusetts objected that they 
had not, authority from the crown as Massachusetts had to set up a 
government and thereby to enjoy the liberties and the laws of England, 
were brought face to face with a power in the Bay which had repudiated 
all the laws of England, all the constitutional safeguards of civil liberty, 
which had denied their allegiance to the King, by virtue of whose 
charter they were enabled to rule within the limits defined therein, and 
were governed by no laws for many years save what existed in the 
heart of the magistrate. 

These earnest loyal men now had simply to choose between civil lib- 
erty and bowing down to this arbitrary power and going into their courts 
to be tried and judged and it might be punished. With true English hearts 
they chose the first at once. They claimed that the laws of England were 
theirs and that English liberty was theirs; that they came from the mother 
country to these shores clothed with them; that it was their birthright; 
and they had an abiding confidence that the government at home would 
in the end vindicate those rights and liberties of theirs, they trusted in 
God and their allegiance and answered." ' [Given with Judge Bra3^ton's 
remarks.] 

" We lately received an irregular note subscribed to by four men of 
the chief among you. We could not give credit to the truth thereof, 
because we thought that men of your parts and professions would never 
have prostituted their wisdom to such an act, that is, to assume a juris- 
diction beyond their charter limits. 

" Whereas you say Robert Cole and William Arnold and others have 
put themselves under the government and protection of your jurisdiction, 
which is the occasion you have now got to contend with us; we wish 
your words were verified, and that they were not elsewhere to' be found, 
that is, out of your jurisdiction. 

" We know neither the one nor the other have power to enlarge the 
bounds by King Charles limited unto you. 

"In that you invite us into your courts to fetch you equal balanced 
justice, upon this ground that you are become one wi'th our adversaries, 
and that both ' in what they have and what they are.' Now if we have 
our opponents to prefer his action against us, and not so onlv. but to 
be our council, our jury, and our judge, [for so it must be. if you are one 
with them as you affirm], we know beforehand how our cause will be 

rout" from the annoyances of the Pawtuxet claimants. "R. I. Tollec- 

tJons, n. «judge Brayton, R. I. H. Tract 17, p. 81. 'Force's 



42 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

ended, and see the scale of your equal justice turned already, before we 
have laid our cause therein ; and can but admire to see you carried so 
contrary to your received principles. 

" Further we know that the chief among you have professed that we 
are not worthy to live and, if some of us were amongst you we should 
hardly see the place of our abode any more. 

" VVhen we have to do in your jurisdiction, we know what it is to sub- 
mit to the wise disposition of our God. When you have to do amongst us 
in the liberties he hath given us, we doubt not but you shall find Him 
judge amongst us, beyond any cause or thing you can propose unto us; 
and let that suffice you, and know that you cannot maintain a jurisdic- 
tion, but you must reject all inroads into other men's privileges, and so 
do we. 

" We profess right unto all men, and do no violence at all, as your 
rescripts threaten to do us; for we have learned how to discipline our 
children or servants without offering violence unto them ; even do we 
know how to deal with our deboist, and, yea, inhuman neighbor, or [if 
you will] nabals, without doing any violence, but rather rendering unto 
them that which is their due. 

" Nor shall we be forward to come so far to find you work upon your 
request, till we known that you bear another mind than others of your 
neighbors do with whom we have had to do in this country, whose pre- 
tended laws we have stooped under to the robbing and spoiling of our 
goods, the livehood of our wives and children, thinking they had labored, 
though groping in gross darkness, to bring forth the truth in the right 
and equity of things, or being such as have denied in the public courts 
that the laws of our native country should be named amongst them ; yea, 
nasty and insufferable places of imprisonment for speaking in the lan- 
guage of them. 

" Yea, they have endeavored, and that in public expressions, that a 
man accused by them should not have liberty to answer for himself in 
open court, as in Plymouth. 

" But the God of vengeance unto whom our cause is referred, never 
having our protector and judge to seek, will show himself in our deliver- 
ance out of the hands of you all." 

[They might be excused for being a little prophetic] 

" We resolve, therefore, to follow our employment and to carry and 
behave ourselves, as formerly we have done, and not otherwise, for we 
have wronged no man, unless with hard labor, to provide for our families 
and suffering idle and idle drones to take our labors out of the mouth 
and from the backs of our little ones, to lordane it over us." 

[And a little more prophecy. They may be excused for a little more 
prophecy.] 

"We will not be dealt with as before v/e speak; in the name of our 
God we will not ; for if any shall disturb as above, secret hypocrites shall 
become open tyrants and their laws appear to be nothing else but mere 
lusts in the eyes of all the world." 

And they conclude: 

" Countrymen, [we can but call you so,] though we find your carriage 
to be far worse than these Indians." 

They seem to have understood the character of their adversaries better 
than their enemies themselves seemed to. We shall afterwards find that 
the civil injuries, and only such which they then desired to redress, were 
not inquired about, nor redress attempted. _ 

Having sent this letter to the General Court, then in session, with m- 

Tract 6, p. 22. Rider's Tract i;, P- °<i- Williams said: "We lived in no order 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 43 

tent that the country might be informed of what the court and magis- 
trates were doing, Gorton says : " Wethought it meet for the possession 
of our peace, together with the compassion we had for our wives and 
little ones, to leave the houses and the rest of our labors lying near unto 
these [Arnolds, Cole and Carpenter] their pretended subjects and re- 
move to territory where there could be no claim thereto or pretense to 
any.'" 

Gorton had been advised to go far from Providence by John Warner, 
who had returned from Boston and reported the threatenings he heard 
there against him. And by William Collins, a scholarly young minister, 
formerly of Gloucester, England, recently from Hartford, Ct., now of 
Portsmouth Aquidneck, — son-in-law of Mrs. Hutchinson, who with 
Francis Hutchinson had been cast into prison at Boston and kept many 
months in durance. He upon his release and on his return to Ports- 
mouth stopped to visit Gorton and urged him to go with him and the 
party of Mrs. Hutchinson to the Swedes or Dutch settlement, for, he 
said, " upon his knowledge the Mass. intended in a short time to take his 
life if he abode in any of the English plantations." But Gorton refused 
to go under the government of any foreign Prince, " as he had neither 
been false to his King nor country nor to his conscience."^ He, with a 
few of his friends, took up their abode at Shawomet, within the Narra- 
gansett territory, but beyond the Pawtuxet river and beyond where any 
English settlement had been made. 

Shawomet, or Warwick. 

The original settlement of Shawomet was made in December, 1642, 
by Gorton and five or six others of his partners in its purchase." The 
whole number of purchasers were Samuel Gorton, Randall Holden, John 
Wickes, Richard Carder, Sampson Shotten, Robert Potter, John Warner, 
John Greene, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman, William Woodale, 
whose names are inserted in the conveyance, and Nicholas Powers, un- 
derstood to have been and who shared as a purchaser with them — twelve 
in all ; but some of them never resided there. Within two months after 
the settlement, on January 12th, they received from Cannonicus and 
Miantinomi and the subordinate Sachems a proper deed for the land." 
They formed themselves into an association for civil government by arbi- 
tration, like that at Providence, and made rules which they agreed to 
observe and by which their proceedings were to be governed. They 
chose from among themselves for such government the regular or accus- 
tomed officers. The receipts from the sale of lots were to be paid to the 
Treasurer; and by John Warner, whom they made Secretary, their rec- 
ords were to be kept. 

The following early items were recorded bv Warner, the handwriting 
corresponding with his later signature and writings : 

Town Orders. 

The purchasers of the plantation do order and conclude first: 
That none shall enjoy any land in the neck called Mishaomet but by 
grant of ye owners and purchasers. 

but rout " from the annoyance of the Pawtuxet claimants. 'R. I. Col., 

ii, 57, 60. °" Settlement of Warwick 1642," by Wm. D. Ely, Proc. R. I. 

H. S., 1887-88, pp. 40-46, and 1890-91, pp. 41-43. '"Cannonicus and 

Miantinomi were the Chief Sachems of the Narragansetts. See Coddington's 
deposition, 2d Mass. Col., vii, 76, 77. Williams' letter in Hazard's Col., i, 613. 
Gorton did not buy this land in violation of any law over it, as Holland states 



44 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

That every acre of meadow shall have its proportion of upland, as the 
neck may afford. 

That we lay our highways into the neck in the most convenient places 
as we think fitting. 

That no man shall directly or indirectly take in any cattle to common 
but only milk cattle and laboring cattle. 

That whomsoever is granted a lot, if he does not fence it and build a 
dwelling house upon it in six months, or in forwardness thereto, for ye 
neglect his lot is to return to ye town to dispose of. 

That for the town proper to all the inhabitants is to be from ye front 
fence to the neck into the country four miles; and that no part of the 
common shall be appropriated to any but by the major part of all ye 
inhabitants; and that every inhabitant is to have six acres to his house 
lot, for which he is to pay ye Treasurer I2s., and this four mile com- 
mon is annexed to every man's lot. 

Several other " orders " follow ; one specifying the manner in which a 
person could be received into the company; he was to be "propounded" 
and afterwards balloted for, and if accepted pay the sum of ten pounds 
sterling. The fourteenth order provided that " no man in the town is to 
sell strong liquor or rock to the Indians for to drink in their houses, and 
if it be proved he that so breaks this order shall pay to the Treasurer 
five shillings for each offense." Subsequently, after the organization of 
the government under the charter, this last order was strengthened by 
the addition of wine to the prohibited liquors.' 

Their town records were more than ordinarily neatly kept ; much of 
them written in good stenography. 

Writers have idly commented on the absence at Providence and Shaw- 
omet of a judiciary and wondered how at the latter place they would 
have determined cases of resistance to their rule. The six men first above 
named as of the purchasers of Shawomet were all who first settled there.* 
The others of the purchasers, who were most of them early Providence 
men, remained at Providence and Occupasnetuxet intent if they had to 
leave upon harvesting their fields before leaving. John Warner did not 
move his family to Shawomet until when six months after the first 
settlement Massachusetts commissioners and soldiers were ordered to 
Providence to treat with him. Some of the purchasers of Shawo- 
met never became residents there. There was no selfish strife among 
the scarcely more than half dozen men there," and what need had 
a few for a " judiciary " during the few months, less than a year, 
there, in which short time they had by daily hard labor cleared 
some forest and hardly finished erecting but four little dwellings, 
when they were carried off to Boston ; none of them permitted to live 
there again until long after a government awaited them under a charter. 
A true and complimentary description of the Shawomet settlers was 
given by William Harris, whom Williams quotes in denouncing " his 
monstrous Diana up streams without limit, so that he might antedate 
and prevent as he speaks, the blades, brisk, mettlesome, sharp, keen, 
active young men of Warwick.''* 

in Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc. 'Town Reeds, Fuller's Hist. Warwick, 

13, 14. 'Johnson, the author of "The Wonder-working Providence of 

Zion's Saviour in New England," gives the number as five or six who encroached 
and began to build. 'R. I. Col., ii, 96. *Nar. Club 6, p. 392- 

" Lands of Rhode Island," 98, 99. "The later " Petition of John Clark 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 45 



CHAPTER V. 

Williams departs from Providence for England to secure a charter — The 
Colonies' League — Massachusetts government orders their Captain-General 
to put the colony on a war basis — Their troops to move under the leadership 
of William Arnold against Greene and others at Providence, Pawtuxet and 
Occupesuatuxet to capture and bring them to Boston for trial — Miantinomi 
again brought by Arnold to the court at Boston, and again refuses them sub- 
mission or cession of his lands ; refuses to deny the sale of his lands to his 
friends Two of Miantinomi's subjects seduced to submission to Massachu- 
setts Shawomet settlers notified by the Massachusetts government of their 

jurisdiction over them and summoned to Boston for trial — Gorton's reply to 
the Massachusetts notice to Shawomet — Occupesuatuxet and Shawomet settlers 
notified by Massachusetts of their intended military advance upon them — 
Providence invaded by the Massachusetts troops — The settlers of Occupes- 
uatuxet flee to Shawomet — Shawomet besieged by Massachusetts soldiers — 
Massachusetts troops send to Boston for reinforcements — Captives sent to Bos- 
ton Benedict and William Arnold commissioned by Massachusetts to seize 

those who escaped — The captives', Gorton and others, imprisonment in Massa- 
chusetts — Their release and banishment by the Massachusetts court from 
Massachusetts, from Providence and from their own Shawomet lands — ^Jhey 
arrive upon the island — Island Aquidneck's name changed to Rhode Island. 

Massachusetts in her assumed authority over the unchartered settle- 
ments denided their right of government ; declaring that " the^^govern- 
ment at home would not endure a plantation without a patent." 

The unchartered government of Providence was, in the absence of the 
King's authorization, insufficient in either law or unity to command the 
obedience of their subjects, had they been numerically strong enough, to 
resist the encroachments of the chartered governments. Gorton had 
urged these reasons for the need of a charter for the Narragansett Bay 
settlements. 

After Massachusetts had, by virtue of the Arnolds' submission, as- 
serted her claim to Providence, including the far-reaching Pawtuxet, it 
became evident to others of the settlers that their independence, their 
only guarantee of any rights with religious freedom, could not be longer 
maintained without a charter. Williams, Clark and others of the liberal 
party who had now come to acknowledge Gorton's theory of security 
and stable government, joined in petitioning the English government for 
a charter for government,^ and chose Williams for the responsible posi- 
tion, which he accepted, of proceeding without longer delay to England 
to secure one. Williams says : " Upon the frequent exception taken by 
Massachusetts that we had no authority for civil government, I went pur- 
posely to England to secure one."' 

When, in February, 1642-3, Williams sat out on his mission "to seek 
this favor and protection from the mother country," he was not allowed 
to enter or leave Boston, Mass., so he proceeded to New York, then 
Manhattan. While enroute he witnessed the Indian assaults upon the 
Dutch settlements at New Haven and upon Long Island, in which were 
massacred many of those who had been driven from the island of Aquid- 
neck by the rule of Coddington. Not until Jime did a ship for an Eng- 
lish port sail from Manhattan, and on this he secured passage." Cod- 
dington's government had the September previous appointed a com- 
mittee to secure them a patent for the island." Massachusetts already 
had Agents Peters and Weld in England making strenuous efforts to 

and others" relates that the petitioners did in 1643 secure a charter. 
'Williams' letter to Prence and Mason, ist Mass. CoUec, 1, 275-283. 4th Mass. 
Collec, ii, 40. 4th Mass. Collec. vi, 186. R. I. Rec, ii. 150-162. Rider sR. I. 
Hist Tract 17, p. 88. Greene's Hist. R. I., p. i5- Gammel's Life of Williams, 
p 116 'Cotton's Bloody Tenets Washed. Williams Bloody Tenets of 

Persecution Intd. 'R. L Rec, i, 125. "Hugh Peters, Thomas 



46 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

secure them a patent for the Narragansett territory, including Provi- 
dence, Shawomet and the island, and Williams' departure was just in 
time to prevent it being patented to others." 

After Williams' departure from Providence, and before he set sail 
from Manhattan, the colonies of Massachusetts, New Haven and Con- 
necticut concluded an alliance in what was termed a United offensive and 
defensive league against heretics and the Indian tribes who had not sub- 
mitted to their governments. The colony of Plymouth was not repre- 
sented, but was whipped in at the October sessions. The Providence or 
Narragansett Bay colonies, being made up largely of heretics and refu- 
gees from the other colonies of New England whom the league essayed 
to suppress, were not invited to join in it." They later repeatedly ap- 
plied for admission in the hope of securing peace and relief from oppres- 
sion,' but it was refused them principally upon the ground alleged, that 
they had no charter and belonged to the other colonies." Military prepa- 
rations were made by Massachusetts to subdue the heretical colonists to 
their government before Williams' return. The initial military move- 
ment was directed against John Greene and others of Providence and 
Occupasuetuxet, who yet clung to their homes and were preparing to 
make crops from their lands.^ On May loth, the Massachusetts Court 
directed Captain General Cook, who was in chief command of the troops, 
to put the colony upon a war basis,* ordered a company of soldiers sent 
" to Providence," and appointed commissioners to go under the leader- 
ship of their Commissioner, William Arnold, to treat with Greene and 
with Warner and Waterman of Providence, who, with W^addle and Pow- 
ers, continued to reside there. On May 20th, the Massachusetts Court 
issued a Commission to William Arnold, Benedict Arnold, William Car- 
penter, Richard Chasmore, Christopher Hanksworth and Stephen 
Arnold, and to all and any of them, to apprehend the bodies of John 
Greene and his son John, Richard Waterman and Nicholas Powers, and 
to bring them to Boston, before the Governor or some other magistrate, 
to be proceeded with according to justice; and if need and occasion be 
they to take aid of any other English or Indians which are under the 
jurisdiction of Massachusetts; and to seize all the cattle of the said John 
Greene which cannot now be found as they might hereafter find and 
either send them to the Governor at Boston or to keep them safe till the 
Governor send for them." ^ This was eighteen months after Gorton left 
Providence, six months after the time he left Papaquinepaug and moved 
to Shav.'omet, more than four months before Massachusets asserted her 
claim to Shawomet, anyone there notified of any claim or anyone dis- 
turbed who lived there. 

The Massachusetts commissioners who had unsuccessfully urged the 
chiefs of the Narragansett tribe to deny first the sale of Providence to 
Williams and second the sale of Occupasuetuxet to Greene, now dili- 
gently pressed the Narragansett Sachems ° for the submission of the 
tribe, the cession of their dominion to Massachusetts and to deny the 
sale of Shawomet to Gorton. Miantinomi upon the urgent solicitation of 

Weld, William Hibbins, John Winthrop. Jr., and Thomas Lichford went together 
to England Aug. 3, 1641. Hibbins and Winlhrop returned in Sep., 1642. Thomas 
Peters, brother of Hugh Peters, also went to England on business for the Mass. 
government in 1646, post p. Savage's Dictionary. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 118. _ 
"Winslow's Memorial Introduction, p. 52. 'Trumbull's Hist. Conn., 1, 

176. Turners Greenes in Colonial History 23. =Winiams' letter, R. I. 

Rec, i, 458. 'Testimony of John Greene. Jr., to Court at Newport, 

Book Nnotes, Vol. 3, No. 21. pp. 241-244. 'Mass. Rec, ii, 30. 

"Ante p. Post p. R. I. Collec, ii, 207, 211, 212. In Oct., 1658, the Arnolds 
were required by the Mass. Court to give bonds for any judgment for damages 
secured against Mass. by Greene, before it would dismiss the Arnolds from the 
Mass. jurisdiction. Mass., Rec, iv, Pt. i, 333, 336. 'Mass. Rec, ii. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 47 

Commissioner Benedict Arnold and others, accompanied them again to 
the court at Boston, but he would not engage with the court in any 
negotiations. To all blandishments and inducements he was unyielding, 
and even the threat made by Benedict that the sale of the land to Gorton 
should cost Miantinomi his head failed to swerve the loyalty of this noble 
chief from his friends. Far from yielding them a submission or acced- 
ing to any of their wishes, he boldly acknowledged his sale of Occupasue- 
tuxet and Shawomet and avowed his right to make them.' Thereupon 
two of Miantinomi's subjects were employed by Arnold and the other 
Massachusetts commissioners to effect their purpose. One of these, 
Socononco, the local Sachem of the tract including Occupasuetuxet, 
and the other, Ponham, the local Sachem of Shawomet. They were in- 
duced by presents, the expectations of great gain and the hope of being 
elevated to independent sachemdoms to say that they signed the deed of 
sale of the land not voluntarily but from fear of Miantinomi. This state- 
ment, although shown to be untrue, if true effected not the validity of the 
sale, for they were subjects of Miantinomi, and according to all Indian 
usage removed at their chief's pleasure. They, on June 22d, 1643, sub- 
mitted themselves as subjects of Massachusetts. This gave the Massa- 
chusetts Court a pretext for jurisdiction over Occupasuetuxet and Shaw- 
omet similar to that which it made by virtue of the submission of the four 
men before mentioned over Providence ; but it was far short of what 
the Commissioners hoped to secure, — Miantinomi's submission and the 
rightful cession he could have made to them of the broad range under his 
dominion. The two Indians " came," Winthrop says, " to our govern- 
ment by Benedict Arnold," who was " allotted four pounds for his pains 
in procuring them,* and Arnold was granted permission to supply them 
with powder and shot as he had occasion. They were the most degraded 
and venial characters, ready tools at the service of any one Who could 
supply them with rum and tobacco.^ Neither Socononco nor Ponham 
could wait until the victims would again abandon their land and houses; 
they had already entered their dwellings and had reasons not stated by 
Winthrop " for wishing to be released from responsibility to the Shaw- 
omet people. They were both thieves, and Ponham, having on one occa- 
sion crep down a chimney and rifled a house in the absence of its 
owner, was captured as he was attempting to escape by the same outlet. 
Perhaps the Massachusetts magistrates were not insensible of the ridicule 
thrown upon them. Ponham was afterwards shot by Massachusetts sol- 
diers near Dedham. Hubbard says, "Among the rest of the captives at 
that time was one of Ponham's sons, a very likely youth and one whose 
countenance would have bespoken favor for him had he not belonged to 
so barbarous and bloody Indian as his father."' 

The next session of the Massachusetts Court was on the 7th of Sep- 
tember, following the submission of the two Indians. The Commission- 
ers of the United League met at the same time in Boston. The Indian 
Sachems in the eastern portion of Long Island submitted themselves, 
their tribes and lands to the colonies which were within the league, and 
these tribes became to them a tributary people. The Massachusetts 
commissioners reported their possession of Narragansett lands secured, 
as they claimed, through the submission of the two forenamed Indians. 

ii, IIS, 121, 123. R. I. Collec, ii, 265. Deposition of Benedict Arnold, R. I. 
Collec, X, 56. Lands of R. I., 97. Drake's Book of the Indians. 
27, 35- 'sd Savage's Winthrop, ii, 97, 100, 145. Palfrey's Hist. N. Eng., 

•Hildreth's Hist. N. Eng., i, 292. ist Winthrop, ii, 120. 2d VVinthrop, ii, 147, 
148. Mass. Rec, ii, 27, 38, 40, 41. ""R. I. Collec, vii, 190. Greenes 

of Warwick 13. '"Bryant's Hist. U. S., ii, 79 note. R. I. Collec, ii, 267. 

*Hubbard's Indian Wars. 'Johnson gives the number as five or six who 



48 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

On the I2th of Scpptember the Massachusetts Court caused the settlers 
of Shawomet to be informed through the before named subjected officers 
of the submission of the two Indians and of the consequent Massachu- 
setts jurisdiction over the Shawomet land and people, and summoned 
Gorton, Wickes, Holden, Potter, Weston, Carder, Warner and Woodale, 
who were now living at Shawomet, to appear at Boston to answer com- 
plaints against them. 

Seldom ever have men been so goaded beyond endurance and to the 
verge of desperation as were these men. After they had for peace sake 
abandoned their own houses and lands and gone to the forest outside the 
claims of every one, where they now, in all but seven of them,^ not at- 
tempting to enforce their religious opinions on any one, and having done 
no man wrong, as shown at their trial at Boston later on, they prayed to 
be left only with what was their own alone; followed here and sum- 
moned to Boston.' 

In reply to the Massachusetts notice " we told them," says Gorton, 
" that we, being so far out of their jurisdiction, could not, neither would 
we acknowledge subjection unto any in the place where we were, but only 
the State of old England, who only had right unto us, and from whom we 
doubted not, but in due season we should receive directions for the well 
ordering of us m all respects; and in the meantime we lived peaceably 
together, desiring and endeavoring to do wrong to no man, neither Eng- 
lish nor Indian ; ending all our difficulties in a neighborly and loving way 
of arbitration mutually chosen amongst us." * 

On September 19th the Massachusetts court sent another notice, by the 
hands of the subjected officers, to Providence and Shawomet, informing 
them that they would shortly send Commissioners for satisfaction, with a 
sufficient guard for their safety agaist any violence or injury; if re- 
ceived they would be left in peace, otherwise to right themselves by force 
of arms. The military movements of the Massachusetts authorities 
against Greene and others at Providence and Occupasuetuxet and Gor- 
ton and others as Shawomet was directed by Benedict Arnold, who 
gave notice to Massachusetts of the proceeding of these men to secure 
themselves and reported that they were ready to meet the Massachusetts 
forces." Almost immediately following the notice the Commissioners, 
accompanied by a company of forty soldiers under command of Captain 
Cook, Lieutenant Atherton and Edward Johnson, the latter the author of 
" Sion's Savior in New England." were dispatched to Providence. Upon 
the approach of the troops Greene and the others wanted by the Massa- 
chusetts government, yet living at Providence and Occupasuetuxet, fled 
to Shawomet. The soldiers marched through Providence, making sure 
that none should escape, and on to Shawomet in pursuit of them. Thus 
by their fleeing brethren while the people of Shawomet were in the field 
at their employment the news of the approach of soldiers reached them. 
The commissioners and soldiers came to a halt September 28. 1643 be- 
fore Shawomet. A message was sent out to the commissioners, who 
proved to be the officers of the company of soldiers, that if they would 
come to treat in any way of equity and peace they would be welcome, but 
not to set a foot upon Shawomet in a hostile way. 

An answer was returned by the same messenger that they desired to 
convince them of their error, to turn them from evil, but if there was no 
way of turning them, then they should look upon them as men prepared 
for slaughter, and proceed with convenient speed to its execution. 

The return of this answer from the officers frightened the women and 

encroached and began to build. 'Mass. Rec, ii, 41- R- I- Collec, ii, 95. 

♦Simplicity's Defense, Staples' Ed. 96. "sd Winthrop, ii, 146. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 49 

children, who fled to the woods, to the Indians and to the other settle- 
ments. The less than twelve men fortified themselves as best they 
could in one of the log houses.* Gorton was the last to enter the citadel, 
having delayed that he might help his wife to a place of safety.' Many 
people of Providence, not of those pursued by the troops, who being 
deeply affected with the proceedings, who had followed on to witness the 
result and to aid their brethren, were prevented by threats and the ap- 
parent hopelessness of success from assisting them. They, however, pre- 
vailed upon Captain Cook and his officers to enter into a parley. At the 
interview the Shawomet men inquired of the strangers the cause of their 
coming, the latter alleged that the former had intruded upon the subjects 
of Massachusetts, and that they held blasphemous errors which they 
must repent of or go with them to the Bay to answer in the courts 
respecting them. 

The Shawomet men answered that they could not yield, that their ad- 
versaries should be their judges, and, too, they being so far out of their 
jurisdiction, but proposed to refer the matter to mutually chosen arbitra- 
tors. This proposition so commended itself to those present that a truce 
was agreed upon until word could be received from Massachusetts. 
Meantime the soldiers broke open the Shawomet people's houses and 
their desks and took away their writings,' quartered themselves upon 
their cattle and drove away those who had come to see them. 

Four of the Providence men, the excellent and venerable Chad Brown, 
who now was first pastor of the Providence Church while Williams was 
in England; Thomas Olney, William Field and William Wickenden, all 
ministers, wrote on October 2d to the Governor of Massachusetts praying 
him to accept the fair and reasonable propositions made to him ; but Win- 
throp in his reply declined acceding to the proposition. 

The truce was terminated by the return of the messengers and an- 
nounced by the discharge of guns and the seizure of all the cattle, 
eighty head, which were turned over to William Arnold, and other 
stock and property of the settlers, and a message "was sent to Gorton in- 
forming him that the truce, which had been no truce, was ended." Gor- 
ton and his men were no cowards. The intruders, four times their 
number proceeded to establish themselves and open fire upon the settlers 
and besieged them for many days ; and until the approach of the Sab- 
bath, when Gorton indulged in the hope that the sanctity of the day 
v/ould afford them a day of rest, but in this he and his friends were dis- 
appointed, for on the Sabbath morning fireworks were prepared with 
the intention of burning the house, which had served as the settlers fort- 
ress. The fire that was set to burn the house was extinguished. The 
besieged, however, though they had arms during all this time, discharged 
not a piece against them, being loth to spill the blood of their country- 
men. 

At length more soldiers were needed, and the intruders sent to Massa- 
chusetts for aid, and the besieged, seeing that in the end they would have 
to yield, sought once more a parley and consented to accompany the 
officers or commissioners to Massachusetts ; provided they might go as 
" free men and neighbors." The conditions were allowed and the troops 
summoned to return home. The Captain, having been admitted into the 
castle of the besieged, immediately, in violation of the articles of capitu- 
lation, seized upon the arms of the settlers, gave them with ammunition 
to the subjected Indians, used Gorton and those with him as captives 

•" The block-house of Samuel Gorton," probablv built of lo^s with their sides 
squared and laid one on the other. 'The wives of John Greene and 

Robert Potter died from fright and exposure in their flieht. 'R. I. Collec, 

ii, 105, 200, 225. Force's iv Tract, 6, p. 53. "Mass. Rec, ii, 53. 54- 



50 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

and marched them through the " Town Street " of Providence as if it 
were their jurisdiction, on to Boston for trial. The men captured at 
Shawomet were Samuel Gorton, Randall Holden, John Wickes, Richard 
Carder, Sampson Shotten, Robert Potter, John Warner, William Wad- 
del and Francis Weston. Richard Waterman and Nicholas Power sur- 
rendered themselves and appeared at the trial with the rest of them," 
but another warrant ,was issued to the before-named subjected officers 
for the arrest of John Greene and John Greene, Jr., who had taken 
refuge on the island of Conanicut and avoided being taken,'" with direc- 
tions to bring them to Boston. The assent upon the people of Shawomet 
was nine months from the time the first of them settled there. 

At the trial no one complained of any injury or wrong, not a person 
but the ministers and magistrates appeared against them.' Out of their 
writings the magistrates framed twenty-six gross opinions. Upon Gor- 
ton's denial of the constructions they had given his writings he was com- 
manded by Dudley, upon penalty of irons, to be silent. Mr. Bradford 
very courageously and at much risk to his interests * prevented further 
questioning unless he was free to speak to them." 

The captured men were for their heretical opinions condemned as 
blasphemous enemies of the Lord Jesus and were sentenced * and im- 
prisoned, narrowly escaping the penalty of death by the refusal of the 
people to concur in the judgment of the Elders. All of the magistrates 
save three were of the opinion that Gorton ought to die, but the greater 
part of the deputies,^ who were chosen by the people, dissented." Gorton 
was confined at Charleston and the others in other towns until March, 
1644, the whole winter, and set at liberty then because the proceedings 
had never the approval of the people, the masses, and it was dangerous 
longer to keep them.' 

The order for the release of the prisoners was passed by the General 
Court on March 7th, but when it was presented to Gorton accompanied 
by a smith to file off his fetters, he refused to part with them on the 
conditions presented, and declared he would wait for " fairer terms of 
release." " When the constable returned with the chief men of the 
town, who ordered the irons to be removed by force, Gorton relaxed his 
resolution and left the prison." This was on the thirteenth of March or 
after. " Gorton and his friends were so kindly received in the various 
houses in Boston that the jealousy of the Magistrates was aroused and 
the Governor took upon himself the responsibility of issuing a warrant 
commanding them to leave town within the space of two hours." They 
were also forbidden to be longer than fourteen days in Massachusetts, 
in or near Providence or any of the lands of Ponham or Socononco [their 
own land] or elsewhere in our jurisdiction." ' 

With free consciences they set out for the island. " Was Captain Cook 
a good captain?" asked some of them of an Indian chief at whose wig- 
wam they were entertained on their journey. " I cannot tell," he 
answered, " but Indians account of those as good captains where a few 
stand out against many." They lodged the last night of their journey in 

"Greenes of Warwick in Colonial Hist. 4- '" We never had accusation 

brought, against us but that arose from the magistrates and ministers, for we 
walked so as to do no man wrong." Gorton in R. I. Collec, li. 54- . 'A 

penalty .mposed of fine or whipping for taking heretics by the hand is related 
by Fohn Clark in his " 111 News from New England." 4th Mass. Collec, u. 
•R. I. Collec. ii. 133. 'Sentence. Mass. Rec. ii. 52, R. I- Collec, 11, 134 

and note. "Upon the whole vote there was a majority of two in Gorton's 

favor. 2d Mass. Collec. viii. 60. R. I. Collec, ii, I34. 232. "Winslow's 

Defense. R. I. Collec, ii, 276. 2d Winthrop, ii, 177. ^d Winthrop, 

179 and note. Judge George A Brayton's Defense of Samuel Gorton. 
•Mass. Rec, ii. 57, R. I. Collec, ii, 148-150. ""There hath been no 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 51 

their houses at Shawomet, where, perceiving that Shawomet was not 
expressly named in the order of the court banishing them, they ad- 
dressed a letter of inquiry from " the government of Shawomet " by 
WilHam Warner, secretary to Governor Winthrop; he replying that it 
was included in the territory forbidden them. They did not wait there 
for the reply to their letter, for Gorton says they arrived on the island 
within the limit of their banishment. Again, " about a week after," 
says Winthrop, " we sent men to fetch so many of their cattle as might 
defray our charge, both of the soldiers and of the court which spent many 
days about them and for their expenses in prison. It came in all to about 
£160.* 

The greatest injustice to Gorton was not in anything we have related, 
but in the untruthful account of him circulated by Massachusetts writers, 
not to justify the people of Massachusetts for they never did approve 
of it, but to justify the Magistrates' and Elders' proceedings. Gorton 
said, truthfully, that " they labored to give the country satisfaction by 
rehearsing gross opinions of us, and interpretation of our writings 
which we abhor. That we denied the holy ordinances of Christ because 
we could not join with them in their way of administration. That we 
denied all civil magistracy because we could not yield to their authority, 
we being above twenty-four miles out of their bounds, which we should 
not have questioned if we had been within them. Our humble respects 
unto all such authority hath been made manifest to all men." 

Through the history of these people and their struggles for life, liberty 
and the possession of their homes yet forty-three troubled years before 
allowed peaceable and permanent possession of them, " Shawomet has 
become a name not only memorable but consecrated by the heroism, 
the suffering and the Christian patience of Samuel Gorton and his com- 
panions."* 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Narragansett Nation. 

The Narragansett Nation — Extent of its domain — War and stratagem — Miantinomi 
captured and his son slain — Denial by Massachusetts of the Sachem's right 
to the land or to sell it to Greene, Gorton and Williams — Gorton intercedes for 
the life of Miantinomi — Miantinomi put to death and word justifying it sent 
to Cannonicus— Grief of the Narragansetts — The Sachems send for Gorton to 
visit them — Gorton secures from them their submission and cession of their 
dominion — The Narragansetts called to answer for what they had done and 
their reply to Massachusetts — Cordial reception of Gorton by the people upon 
his return to the island — Gorton again chosen Magistrate — Gorton and others 
settle down on the island to abide the arrival of the charter — Political reunion 
of the church — Coddington writes to Winthrop of Gorton's adherents' opposi- 
tion to him and to Massachusetts — Coddington's attempt to deliver Gorton 
again to the Massachusetts court prevented by the island people. 

At the time of the first settlement of the English in Narragansett 
the Narragansett nation was without a rival or equal among the tribes 

small noise of Master Gorton and his friends being disciplined [by Mass.]. It 
is_ worth the inquiry to ask what conviction and conversion hath all these hostil- 
ities, captivatings, courtings, imprisonments, chainings, banishments, etc., wrought 
upon them." Roger Williams. Austin's Collections of Williams' Writings. 
'"R. I. Collec, ii, 120. 'William D. Ely and John A. Rowland in Proc. 

R. I. H. Soc, 1887-88, p. 44. William D. Ely, Proc. R. I. H. Soc, 1890-91, pp. 



52 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

of the east. Cannonicus was its Chief, and no eastern tribe could 
compare with it either in extent of jurisdiction, number of warriors, 
firmness and wisdom of government, or industry of its people. Its 
Chief had full and undoubted jurisdiction over the inhabitants of a 
tract of country extending from the Nimpuck country, which is now 
Oxford, Mass., in the north, southerly to the ocean, including Manesses 
(or Block Island) and a part of Long Island. It began on the east with 
Seekonk river and the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay, and ex- 
tended westward, including the islands, to the Pawcattuk river or 
perhaps beyond it to the borders of the tribe which dwelt " in the trust 
of Pequot river, now called the Thames, and was under the control of 
the fierce and bloodthirsty enemy of the Narragansetts, Uncas, a chief 
who had rebelled against Sassacus, the Pequot Sachem, and detached 
from its allegiance a considerable portion of his nation, of which he 
had formed a distinct tribe. 

The general name of Narragansetts was applied to all the inhabitants 
of this long tract of country ; but they were divided into several petty 
tribes with each its under-sachem and local name; and this appellation, 
in its original and restrictive sense, belonged only to that tribe which 
dwelt on the southwestern shores of the bay. This was the chief tribe, 
or the most distinguished of all the tribes of which the nation was 
composed, and the Sachem or ruler of this tribe was consequently the 
Grand Sachem, and his jurisdiction and government extended over 
the entire country here described bounds of the nation. 

IMore than this, the Wampanoags to the east were subject to theni, 
but their chief, Massasoit, formed an alliance with the Whites, gave 
them a portion of the lands he had subjected to Cannonicus and Mian- 
tinomi ; and was reinstated at the head of an independent confederacy. 

After the extermination [Sept., 1638] of the Pequot tribe, a treaty 
was arranged by the Whites between Miantinomi, nephew of Cannonicus 
and now active Chief of the Narragansetts, and Uncas, the treacherous 
Chief of the Mohegans, agreeing to an oblivion of the past, and that 
new complaints should be submitted to the Whites for arbitration. 

The treaty was not kept inviolate. Uncas established himself in 
the popularity of the Whites at Boston and grew more insolent to his 
Narragansett brethren. He threw out menaces, uttered the names of 
their honored dead and jeered at their memory. For a succession of 
injuries done to his friends and kindred, Miantinomi complained first 
to Connecticut and was told that they did not countenance or justify 
the wrongs. He then complained to Massachusetts and was told that 
if Uncas had done him or his friends wrong and would give no satis- 
faction, he was at liberty to take his own course. He had thus fulfilled 
the obligations of the treaty to the letter. The arbitrators had declined 
acting and he went about to redress his wrongs in his own way. 

The two armies approached each other over a place since called 
Sachems' Plain; and here Uncas proceeded to carry into effect a 
stratagem. 

Before the battle commenced, he stepped from his ranks and desired 
a parley [the two armies thereupon halting within bowshot of one 
another], and suggested that "stout men fight it out" in a personal 
battle. This refusal was what Uncas had anticipated, and the moment 
it was uttered he fell flat on the ground and his men discharged^ their 
arrows over him upon the unsuspecting Narragansetts. They yielded 
to the shock, broke and fled. They were pursued, many falling beneath 
the stroke of tomahawk and war club. Among the slain were two sons 

41-43. The Sachem wore an arrow-proof jacket that had been pre- 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 53 

of Cannonicus and a brother of Miantinomi. In the heat of the pursuit 
the Mohegans were arrested by the shout of Uncas, announcing the 
capture, the fall of Miantinomi/ 

Miantinomi had been the friend of Williams and Gorton in their 
distress. When Gorton and his persecuted followers removed to Shawo- 
met, the kind and generous Chieftain received them and their families 
with generous hospitality and granted them land upon which to dwell 
among them, and he was not in the day of his tribulation forgotten. 

The right of Miantinomi to grant this land Massachusetts denied, 
and after having seduced his under-sachems to renounce his authority 
the Magistrates of Massachusetts summoned the independent chief 
himself to appear before them, as judges in their own cause, to show 
by what right he had made the grant and how he claimed jurisdiction 
over his own subjects. 

It was during the heat of the proceedings of the Boston Commissioners 
against Gorton and his friends that Gorton learned that Miantinomi 
had become the captive of Uncas, the favorite and protege of Massa- 
chusetts. He immediately interposed, requiring Uncas to release his 
prisoner, and threatening him with vengeance if he refused. The 
shrewd Mohegan thereupon surrendered his prisoner, but to the public 
authorities at Hartford. To the latter, neither Gorton's efforts or 
Miantinomi's earnest plea that he be delivered to his Shawomet and 
Providence friends were availing." The authorities at Hartford retained 
him, even after the payment by the Narragansetts to Uncas of a large 
ransom,* a prisoner until the Commissioners met at Boston in Septem- 
ber,^ when they sought the advice of the Elders, who upon the pretense 
that he, in what he had done, had not consulted them according to the 
treaty or agreement — the evident ground for the decision, however, 
being that all their efforts had proven that he could not be seduced from 
his allegiance to Gorton and Williams and made to renounce his deeds 
of land to them, and submit himself and his dominion to the government 
of Massachusetts — gave their opinion that he deserved to die.* The 
Commissioners thereupon returned him to Uncas, commanded Uncas 
to put him to death, and engaged to save him harmless of the conse- 
quences.' He was killed while the troops were besieging Gorton and 
his party in the block building. Winthrop sent a letter to Cannonicus 
justifying the execution, and, " that the Indians might know that the 
English did approve it, sent twelve or fourteen muskateers to abide 
awhile " with Uncas for his protection.* 

Upon the receipt of the news of the death of Miantinomi, " one 
universal wail of grief passed through all Narragansett." Loud lamen- 
tations, day and night, burst from groups of women and children and 
aged men, whilst the warriors blackened their faces, sharpened their 
hatchets and muttered dreadful imprecations. 

" The chief and most aged peaceable father of the country, Cannoni- 
cus, having buried his sons, he burned his own palace and all his goods 
in it [among them to a great value] in a solemn remembrance and in a 
kind of humble expiation to the Gods.'" And Pessacus, one of the 
successors and the brother of Miantinomi, sent messengers to the 
Governor of Massachusetts, informing him of his determination to 
avenge the death of their Sachem. 

sented to him by Gorton ; but that this at all retarded his action, as writers have 
asserted, is not probable. 'Trumbull's Hist. Conn. 131. *5th Mass. 

Collec, i, 331. R. I. Collec.. vii. 64. "Hollister's Hist. Conn., i, 122. 

*Acts, Corns. United Colonies, Sep. 1643, PP. 9-12. 2d Winthrop, ii, 158 and note. 
R. I. Rec, i, 137. Gammel's Life of Williams, 125. R. I. Collec, vii, 167. 
'Trumbull's Hist. Conn., i, 136. *2d Winthrop, ii, 161, 162, 301. 

•Williams' Key, Nar. Club, i, and in Complete Works of H^n. Job Durfee, LL. D., 



54 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

The sturdy resistance of Gorton to the injustice of the Massachusetts 
authorities,'" his restoration to freedom, the plea he had made for Mian- 
tinomi, and his ever kindly interest in the welfare of the red people 
gave him the highest favor any man had attained to among them ; and 
the Sachems, immediately upon Gorton's freedom and arrival upon the 
island, sent messengers to him, to recount to him their wrongs, to express 
their sympathy and love for him and their surprise and joy at his release. 
When they returned he accompanied them. The Sachems, seeing the 
approach of the vessel, sent a band of lusty men who met him and 
conducted him to the old Sachem Cannonicus, multitudes of Indians 
com.ing forth joyfully to meet him. Directly upon Gorton's arrival 
among them, on April 19th, a General Assembly of the Narragansett 
Nation was called by their Chiefs for the public manifestation of tlie 
sense of the wrong done them and for the adoption of measures to right 
them. An accusation, plainly false, was made by the Massachusetts 
Alagistrates against the planters of encouraging the Narragansetts to 
war. The Narragansetts, at this time a powerful tribe, needed no 
encouragement to leap in avenging warfare ; they ached for it. Only 
Gorton's influence with them and their heed to his persuasion that they 
refrain from violence and await the better righting of their wrongs 
by the English government, which all felt sure would be done, restrained 
them from the slaughter of many Massachusetts settlers. An Act of 
Submission, which the Massachusetts Commissioner had been unable 
to obtain from them, was procured from them by Gorton. Williams 
had not yet returned with the charter, and so from necessity, as well 
as propriety, the submission was taken to the parent government. A 
form.al act, setting forth their reasons therefor, submitting themselves 
and granting their entire dominion to the government of the King, was 
drawn up by Gorton, and it was subscribed to by Pessicus, Chief 
Sachem, brother and successor of the late Miantinomi, and Cannonicus 
and his son Mixan.' The article was also a peace treaty in which they, 
yielding to Gorton's advice, agreed not to war for revenge, but to 
submit their wrongs and their redress to the justice of Great Britain; 
and although civil war in England prevented that government from 
protecting them in their rights or redressing their grievances and the 
killing of Miantinomi went unavenged, the Narragansetts, out of regard 
for Gorton and Williams, never violated this agreement, even after 
they had despaired of relief from England. They remained neutral 
in war until forced from it by the other colonies assaulting them.* 

At the time of Gorton and his company's release " the triumph of 
Massachusetts seemed complete; yet within forty days this despised 
handful of men, by a master stroke, snatched victory from defeat." 
With matchless statesmanship they induced the Narragansett Indians 
to cede the coveted Narragansett territory to the King, and thus raised 
a perpetual bulwark against a final conquest of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations by Massachusetts Bay.' 

The Article of Submission and Cession by the Narragansett Nation 
contains the following: We, the Chief Sachems, Princes or Governors 
of the Narragansetts [in that part of America now called New England] 

Chief Justice R. I. '"R. I. Collec, vii, 194. Gorton was a clever lin- 

guist ; his eldest son also. They were of the few who understood the Indians 
and could converse with them freely. '"Rhode Island's^^ claim to a 

tract of territory on which without doubt depended her existence," Dr. Henry 
E. Turner in Colonial Hist, of Greene Family. " They," of Shawomet, " fearing 
to be again troubled, the Mass. seeking a patent for some of the Narragansett 
country, they procured an actual and solemn .submission of the Sachems," Cal- 
lender in R. I. Collec, iv, 90. "Judge Durfee, His Works, Gladding 

and Proud Prov., 1849. "Wm. D. Ely, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1887-88. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 55 

together with the joint and unanimous consent of all our people, bend- 
ing their hearts with one consent, freely and voluntarily give ourselves, 
peoples, lands, rights, inheritances, and possessions in themselves and 
their heirs successively forever, unto the government of Prince Charles, 
King of Great Britain, forever, to be governed according to the ancient 
laws established in the realm and kingdom of England, as loving and 
obedient subjects of his Majesty; to be ruled according to his princely 
wisdom, council and laws of that honorable State of old England, upon 
conditions of His Majesty's royal protection and righting us of what 
v/rong is or may be done unto us. To have our causes heard and tried 
according to his just and equal laws. Nor can we yield ourselves unto 
any that are subjects themselves in any cause; having ourselves been 
the Chief Sachems or Princes successively of the country time out of 
mind. And for our present and lawful enacting hereof, being so far 
remote from His Majesty, we have by joint consent made choice of 
four of his loyal and loving subjects, our trusty and well beloved friends, 
Samuel Gorton, John Wickes, Randall Holden, and John Greene, 
whom we have deputied and made our lawful Attorneys and Com- 
missioners, not only for the acting and performing of this our deed, 
but also for the safe custody, careful conveyance and declaration 
hereof unto his grace.* 

The Chief Sachems Uaving been sent for by Massachusetts to make 
their appearance at Boston and answer for what they had done to the 
General Court then approaching, replied, on May 24th, in a letter con- 
taining the following: 

We understand you desire that we should come to Massachusetts 
at the time of your Court now approaching. Our occasions at this same 
time are very great, and the more because of the loss in that manner 
of our late deceased brother, upon which occasion, if we should not 
stir ourselves to give testimony of our faithfulness unto the cause of 
that, our so unjust deprivation of such an instrument as he was amongst 
us for our common good, we should fear his blood would lie upon us; 
so we desire your reasons why you seem to advise us not to go out 
against our so inhuman and cruel adversary, who took so great a 
ransom to release him and his life also. Our brother was willing to 
stir much abroad to converse with men, and we see a sad event there- 
upon. Take it not ill therefore, though we resolve to. keep at home, and 
so at this time do not repair unto you according to your request ; and the 
rather because we have subjected ourselves, our lands and possessions, 
with all the rights and inheritances of us and our people, either by 
conquest, voluntary subjection or otherwise, unto that famous and 
honorable government of that royal kingdom of King Charles, and that 
State of old England, to be ordered and governed according to the laws 
and customs thereof; not doubting of the continuance of that former 
love that hath been betwixt you and us, but rather to have it increase; 
hereby being subject now (and that with joint and voluntary consent") 
unto the same King and State yourselves are; so that if any small 
thing of difference shall fall out betwixt us. only the sending of a 
messenger may bring it to right again; but if any great matter should 
fall (which we hope and desire will not nor may not), then neither 
yourselves nor we are to be judges; and both of us are to have recourse 
and repair unto that honorable and just government." 

On June 20th a General Court of the Commissioners put in trust 
for the publication of the Act of Submission was held, and a letter was 

*R. I. Rec, i, 134. 'R. I. Rec, i, 136. 'R. I. Rec, i, 138. This 

submission of the Narragansetts to the government of England of the land as 



56 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

prepared by them and copies subscribed to by their Secretary, sent 
to both the Massachusetts Court and that of the United Colonies then 
assembled [there being, Gorton says, fear and jealousies raised up in 
their minds that the Narragansetts would harm them], informing them 
of the voluntary performance of their act of the cession of their lands 
and of their agreement to abide a peaceable settlement of all difficulties 
between them, the latter thus concluding: That so not ourselves only, 
who are eye and ear witnesses hereof, but you also, may follow our 
occasions and employments without any extraordinary care or fear of 
the people aforesaid. But if either you or we find anything among 
them too grevious to be borne, they not making any violent assault upon 
us, we know whither and to whom we are to repair and have recourse 
for redress, as we bend our allegiance and subjection unto our King 
and State, unto which they are become fellow-subjects with ourselves; 
and therefore of necessity His Majesty's princely care must reach unto 
them.* 

Upon the receipt of this at Boston, messengers were again dispatched 
to the Sachems to persuade them to repudiate the transaction and yet 
submit to Massachusetts, and to dissuade them from taking counsel 
from men, Winthrop says, "such as we had banished;'" but when the 
messengers came to Cannonicus he would not admit them into his 
wigwam and remained within, while the messengers stood for two 
hours out in the rain." When he did admit them, he lay long on his 
couch and would not speak to them more than a few forward speeches, 
but referred them to Pessicus, who, coming after some four hours, 
showed them into an ordinary wigwam and there had conference with 
them the most part of the night. 

The seizure of Shawomet and the new light Cannonicus " had gained 
respecting the weakness of his neighbors did not move him to break 
the faith which he had pledged to them. He might have done it with 
impunity and with profit. The Boston theologians, who had found 
reasons wherewith to satisfy the conscience of the Magistracy with the 
death of Miantinomi, could have found equally good ones to justify 
Cannonicus in the repudiation of the grants to misbelievers such as 
Gorton and Williams; but against all hopes of favor or money the old 
barbarian kept his word." The messengers were answered. Winthrop 
says, " full to the question,'" and they returned, without accomplishing 
anything, to Boston. 

No measure could be more offensive to the Massachusetts Magistrates 
than the cession act of the Narragansetts procured by Gorton, or could 
more provoke their resentment, because it was their own ^intention and 
practice to "acquire the subjection of the same territory.'"" They had 
fruitlessly made every effort to obtain it. No act ever better served 
the main purpose of its promoter than this. It was by the King and 
his Commissioners held to be the original of all claims to the territory; 
cutting the knot of the question pending between the disputants for it; 
was declared by them to be the best of all claims, and therefore they 
definitely allotted this territory to the government of the Williams' 
charter, for which he who drew the act intended it.' 

The whole Liberal party, and that comprised seven-eighths of the 

was then the Fncrlish practice was virtually but a sessinn of sovereipnty, as 
England acknowledged to the Narragansetts the use or disposition of the soil, 
and assayed to protect them in their right to it. The Mass. Court vainly sought 
the Narragansetts submission for their claimed double right of sovereignty and 
the use or disposition of the soil to settlers. '2d Winthron. ii, 203. 

»R. I. Collec. vii, 161, iqi. 'id Winthrop. ii, 203. Nar. Club, ii. 

"Chalmers" Political Annals, Book i, ch. xi, p. 273. 'R. I. Rec, lii, 40, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 57 

people inhabiting Providence, Shawomet and Aquidneck Island, had 
been alarmed and distressed by the proceedings of Massachusetts, and 
were deeply in sympathy with Gorton and the others of the Shawomet 
people. William Arnold, in a letter to Massachusetts," writes : " The 
most part of the colony stand affected with them against Massachusetts* 
dealings." Made shelterless in New England mid-winter, " only the 
kindness of their friends saved their wives and children from utter 
extermination."* The large share of the inhabitants of Portsmouth 
had been members with Gorton of the model civil government he with 
Hutchinson established there. Those who were driven away were 
only the leading ones of Coddington's opponents. The larger part of 
the Liberal party remained there. They were the popular and majority 
party, and were emphatically law and order men, ardent advocates of 
civil government and civil magistracy there, and were opposed to no 
magistracy but that which was corrupt and that had illegally set itself 
up. The restoration to the island of Gorton, their leader and so able 
an advocate of their principles, was of " much strength "* to the cause 
and was accordingly hailed with delight by the people. Although 
Coddington at Newport claimed jurisdiction over the Portsmouth people, 
and tried in his high court such of them as he could entrap in it, 
Portsmouth men maintained their own courts, chose their own officers, 
and for these all enjoyed the franchise privileges; and they, immediately 
upon Gorton's arrival, chose him to the office of Judge or Magistrate 
as an expression of their loyalty and affection.'^ In this office he was 
continued for many years." Coddington did not hold his court in 
Portsmouth. 

Trusting that " in due season they would receive directions for their 
well ordering " and the protection that would enable them to return 
to their homes at Shawomet, the banished people, Gorton with them, 
quietly settled down upon the island ; they and the people of Portsmouth 
eagerly awaiting the arrival of the charter.' 

About two years previous to this,* Deacon Aspinwall of Portsmouth, 
who was the only one of the first island settlers that Massachusetts 
had banished, had returned to the church. " He made," says Winthrop, 
" a very firee and full acknowledgement of his error and seducement, 
and that vv'ith much detestation of his sin." Mr. Wheelright, who had 
occasioned the separation and emigration of the company to the island, 
eventually also tendered to the church his submission. The church 
authority was well established in Coddington's court, so far as it could 
exercise its authority. Though he " maintained " his court at Newport, 
its work was at about an end, the business resting with the local Magis- 
trates of the towns. He wrote to Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts 
the following: "Gorton is here against my mind and shall not be 
protected by me. A party here adhere to Gorton and his company in 
both plantations and judge them so much strength to the place, but are 
no friends to us and you."* As they remained on the island and did not 
depart, as did the Hutchinsons and others, the correspondence was 
continued between Massachusetts and those here now " members of 
their church," to again deliver them into their hands, but the people 

41, 61, 62, 63. Fuller's Hist. Warwick, 28. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 1Q5. Palfrey's 
Hist. N. E., ii, 603. Williams, Nar. Club, vi, R. I. Collec. 'R. I. Collec, 

ii, 207-212. ^Turners Greenes of Warwick. 'Coddington's 

letter, post p. 'Winthrop's Defense, 83, post p. Arnold's Hist. R. I., 

i. 160. 'The local judges were later made the Commissioners and 

Deputies or Representatives of the towns in the charter government. 
"' Gorton had no intention of immediately leaving Rhode Island." Palfrey, ii, 
223 note. R. I. Collec, ii, 165. Force's iv, Tract 6, p. 96. *0n Mar. 

27, 1642. "Mass. Arch., ii, 4, 5. '"R. I. Collec, ii, 165. 



58 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

having notice thereof did altogether detest such a course; so they still 
abode and followed their employment.'" Both Williams and Gorton 
in their writings referring to Aquidneck called it Rhode Island. Dur- 
ing this year the island was officially given this name. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Williams arrives with the charter for government of mainland and island, all 
as " Providence Plantations " — Organization of government — Williams Gov- 
ernor, Clark Deputy Governor, Gorton Assistant and Judge — The people sub- 
scribe to the King and his laws under the charter — A code of laws for the 
government of the colony — Deputies, or Commissioners, sent from all the 
towns — Imprisonment for debt abolished — Cannonicus again grants Narragan- 
sett lands (Wickford) to Williams — Williams leaves Providence, builds a 
Trading House on his grant and settles on it — Assembly of the chartered gov- 
ernment at Portsmouth — Movement to allot lands at Wickford and to return to 
Shawomet — Rival claims of Plymouth and Massachusetts — Arnold directed 
by Massachusetts to remove any who should settle — Coddington and his briefless 
court — His danger from the people — Massachusetts government attaches Prov- 
idence and Shawomet, and sends to bring tiie people to Boston — Massachu- 
setts begins war against the Narragansetts — Soldiers sent against them — Mes- 
sengers' and soldiers' repeated attempts to secure the Narragansetts' submis- 
sion and to bring their chieftains to Boston — Repeated failures of their mission 
— The messengers visit Williams at his Trading House, receive a letter from 
him and return to Boston — The Colleagued colonies declare war against the 
Narragansetts — Reasons for the war ordered to be published — Three hun- 
dred troops and a fleet and other men for it ordered raised and a fort built upon 
Shawomet — Notice from Williams to Massachusetts of a treaty of neutrality 
entered into between the Narragansetts and the government of the Providnce 
Plantations. 

Charles the First had left Whitehall, then the seat of the English 
government, on January loth, 1642-3, before WiUiams left Providence, 
and Parliament had, in November. 1643. constituted Commissioners 
empowered to dispose of all things regarding the Plantations;' from 
whom Williams, on the 14th of March, 1643-4, procured a charter for 
the " Providence Plantations," " bounding northward and northeast 
on the patent of Massaclntsetts, and southeast on Plymouth patent, south 
on the ocean, and on the west and northwest by the Indians called the 
Narragansetts; the whole tract extending about twenty-five miles into 
the Pequot river and country. And, whereas, divers well affected and 
industrious English inhabitants of the towns of Providence, Ports- 
mouth and Newport, in the tract aforesaid, have adventured to make 
a near neighborhood and society with the great body of the Narragan- 
setts ; and haz>e also purchased and arc purchasing of the natives other 
places zi'hich may be convenient for Plantations: and, whereas, the 
English have represented their' desire to the Earl and Commissioners 
to have their beginning approved and confirmed by granting unto them 
a Free Charter of Civil Incorporation and Government, that they may 
order and govern their Plantations in such a manner as to maintain qtiiet 
and peace^hoth among themselves and toward all men zvtth ivhom they 
shall have to do. In due consideration of said premises, the said Robert 
Earl of Warwick, Governor-in-Chicf and Lord High Admiral of the 
said Plantations, and the greater number of the said Commissioners 
whose names and seals are here underwritten and subjoined, do by the 
aforesaid ordinance of the Lord and Commons give grant and confirm 

>R. I. Rec. i. 143. 144. R. I. Collec. iv. 222. *Tbis territory and its 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 59 

to the aforesaid inhabitants of the towns of Providence, Portsmouth 
and Newport a free and absolute Charter of Incorporation, to be known 
by the name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations* in the 
Narragansett Bay ; together with full power and authority to rule them- 
selves and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the 
said tract of land."^ 

The patent provided for prospective settlements, covering as was 
intended and had been planned by these people, besides the lands where 
settlements were established, any lands now granted or that should 
hereafter be granted for settlement by the Indians to Gorton and his 
friends, who were preparing to build dwellings when Williams departed.* 

Williams upon his return was saved from the long route via Man- 
hattan by a letter furnished him by Northumberland, Fernwick and 
ten other Parliament peers and Commoners, commanding the Massa- 
chusetts Magistrates to not molest him and to regard the charter; with 
which letter and charter he, on September 17th, 1644, landed at Boston. 
Upon Williams' arrival with the charter and shield to his planters 
from the aggressions of the Massachusetts rulers, bitter censures were 
poured out by the latter upon the heads of Peters and Weld, their 
unsuccessful agents." The delight of the settlers of the Providence 
Plantations was great and expressed by public demonstrations. The 
charter, says Gorton, " was joyfully received by the entire colony,"* 
by those of Shawomet not the least, for it gave to all the plantations 
the power of government that would, it was thought, protect them in 
the peaceful possession of their lands and homes. 

The Parliament Commissioners, after Williams' departure on August 
19th, 1644, iii response to complaints which had been sent to them of 
the invasion of the Plantations and the imprisonment of Gorton and 
his companions, sent a letter of reproof to the Massachusetts authori- 
ties, which letter probably as early as October reached them.' Yet the 
Massachusetts Court, undismayed by all, on October 17th, 1644, sent 
a letter forbidding any person intending to settle at Shawomet to do so, 
and asserted their resolutions to maintain what they called their rights." 

" With all expedition," in October or November, 1644, at Portsmouth, 
" a joint course was held for instructing the people into the power of 
the charter and liberties thereof, for the exercise of the authority in the 
execution of law for the good and quiet of the people." Representatives 
from all the towns in the colony were present, and they formed an 
organization of government under the charter, which included all the 

government could not well have been named otherwise than Providence Planta- 
tions, for Providence was the main settlement and there was not then such a 
place as Rhode Island : This name was given by the Island Court to Aquidneck 
Island on Mar. 13, 1643-4, after the last reading of Williams' charter upon its 
passage by the Foreign Commissioners in England. R. I. Rec, i, 127. R. I. 
Collec, iv, 88. 'R. I. Rec, i, 143-146. English land at this time was 

owned by the government. Its patent, as that to Mass., was both a grant of 
dominion, t. e., the right to govern the inhabitants of it and a c^ant of tlae right 
of loyalists to its use. One of Williams' offenses to Mass. was his assertion 
that they should not receive the use of the land from Eng. This opinion was 
held also by Gorton and most others of the Prov. Plantations, and in accordanca 
with this view the patent applied for and received by Williams granted only 
dominion, recognizing the Indians as the rightful lords to its use. This right 
the inhabitants of Prov. Plantations received by grant from the Indians. The 
Feudal system of government ownership of English lands was shortly afterwards 
abolished. *There was no town upon the wild lands called by the Indians 

Shawomet when Williams went to obtain the charter, but before he returned 
the settlers had built there and been driven from the town, now of about four 
little dwellings. 'Remarks of Thomas Aspinwall. Sidney S. Rider, 

Pub. Prov. 'R. I. Collec, ii, 121. 'Baylie's Hist. Plymouth, i, 

250. 'R. I. H. Tract 17, p. no. R. I. Collec, ii, 166. 'Gorton's 



6o LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

towns within the Narragansett tract, under the name of the Incorpora- 
tion of the Providence Plantations.' No records of the names of the 
corporators and of only part of its officers are preserved. Williams 
iwas chosen Governor;'" Clark a Representative of Newport, doubtless 
one of "the Commissioners" present whom Coddington says "joined 
them/'* was chosen Deputy Governor ;* Gorton was chosen an Assistant 
and Judge ;^ and other Commissioners from Portsmouth and Shawomet 
accepted offices to which they were chosen.' 

By this charter organization " it was then that the inhabitants of the 
State first became a corporate people."" This was the beginning, with 
Williams the first Governor, of the government of the present State. 
The Plantation of Providence immediately subscribed to, constructed 
and conducted its government under it and in accordance with the 
charter provisions. It enforced its orders. It was, according to the 
then highest earthly authority, the English government, a legally con- 
stituted and legally organized government, and although most of the 
early records are destroyed, sufficient evidence to assure us of the 
exercise of its authority at this time remains. It was the beginning of 
the chartered government granting and maintaining unlimited freedom 
in matters of conscience and franchise rights to all its people. A 
remarkable code of laws, one of the earliest compilation of laws in 
American history, in which Gorton's wisdom and literary talent, and 
also his superior legal acquirements, are apparent, was drawn up for 
the government of the colony. " In the construction of this code, cat e 
was taken to avoid the errors of which Gorton had complained in the 
judicial procedures of the other colonies by making each section con- 
form to existing English law, reference to the corresponding English 
Statutes being placed at the end thereof." It forbade imprisonment for 
debt, and in other respects was in advance of contemporary legislation. 
The position against witchcraft indicates a prevailing scepticism here 
at the time when Massachusetts was under the spell of the delusion, 
soon to break out in an appalling epidemic of persecution.* The men 
of Shawomet were particularly accused by the Massachusetts authori- 
ties, in a letter addressed to the agent of the colony in England, for 
" crying out against them that putteth people to death for witches, for 

account in R. I. Collec, ii, 165, 166, R. I. II. Tract 17, p. no. "Had an organi- 
zation of the whole colony in the fall at Portsmouth, Gorton and others accepting 
the places to which chosen." Judge Brayton in Rider's Tract 17. 
"Williams in his letter, R. I. Rec, i, 458, writes: "Myself the Chief-officer in 
this colony," see his letter in latter portion of these pages. R. I. Collec, iii, 
159-162. Williams was in 1652, "as well as before this time, elected to the 
office of President or Governor of the colony." Judge Durfee, His Works, 177. 
■Coddington's letter to Winthrop, Nov. 11, 1646, "The Commissioners have joined 
them in the same charter." "Capt. John Laveret of Mass. writes, in 

about 1651, to Thos. Tempee of London, Eng. : "It is creditably reported that 
Rhode Island has chosen one John Clark their Deputy Governor, and intend 10 
send him to complain to his Majesty." Hutchinson Papers 382, 383. In Nov., 
1651, Clark sailed on that mission from Boston, and in the same month Leveret 
followed him to answer him. At no period after 1644-7 was Clark a Deputy 
Governor until 1670. Thus it appears that the titles of the chief officers in the 
organization, 1644, were Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants. The 
Rovernment modeled after that of Hutchinson and Gorton upon the island. 
*" An Incorruptable Key, by Samuel Gorton, at the time of penning hereof in the 
place of Judication, Rhode Island, Providence Plantations, printed in the year 
1647." This was printed while he was in England. *" We, by the 

general vote of all the colony, have been chosen into the place of judicature for 
the orderly execution of the authority of the charter." Gorton's account. Force s 
Tract, Vol. iv. R. I. Collec, ii, 121, i6s, 166. Winslow's Defense, 83. 
•Judge Durfee, His Works, 481, pub. 1840 at Prov. and Boston. Dr. 

Janes' Life of Samuel Gorton. 'William Arnold's letter to Winthrop 

in Book of News, in Winslow's Defense, copy of letter in R. I. Rec, 1, 235. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 6i 

they say thjere be no other witches upon earth nor devils but your own 
pastors and ministers, such as they are.'" 

The order from the Massachusetts Court of October 17th was 
received ; and letters from the Earl of Warwick, President of the Board 
of Parliament Commissioners, were, as in divers times before, received 
by the Commissioners of the new government, enclosing directions to 
the neighboring colonies to respect the chartered rights and expressing 
his resolution to maintain the charter granted to Williams.' "Upon 
this the country about us was more friendly and wrote to us as an 
authorized colony, only the difference of our consciences much ob- 
structed."" 

There are no preserved records of a January or February General 
Assembly. By plunder and by fire and otherwise the greater part of 
the records at Providence for the years 1644, 45, 46 were destroyed. 
Seldom were books used then, but the records kept on separate sheets 
of paper. If any book of general affairs was kept, it is missing. When 
a Town-book was used, the proceedings of the Prc^-'^'jnce Plantations 
and the colony of Providence Plantations — proceedings of both bodies- 
were entered indiscriminately in it, and it is not always clear in 
what capacity an act was done." The general business, to begin with, 
was hardly more than talk about lands where, during the winter months, 
few could settle. The people of the towns of Portsmouth and Newport 
maintained their town governments. They had chosen and sent their 
representatives to the Assembly of the chartered government and been 
joined to it. " The Commissioners," as Coddington stated, " had joined 
them in the same charter." Yet Coddington assumed to sit in a court 
of his own, which was elected by a limited few, who were by him made 
his freemen or electors upon pledging themselves to sustain him. This 
he asserted as a superior court, making laws for the whole island and 
trying the cases brought into it. Although for many months without 
a sitting and its justice and legality denied by so formidable an opponent 
as Clark at Newport and Gorton at Portsmouth, and with them a large 
majority of the whole island people, he so maintained what he called 
"government" as to hold back from the chartered Assembly the busi- 
ness of these towns. Very little general business for the charter govern- 
ment arose until after Coddington's leaders joined it, and then in draw- 
ing the numerous bills of indictment against Coddington. 

On April 14th' a court was held by the Deputies or Commissioners,' 
and on the 19th of the same month a number of the " free inhabitants " 
were granted twenty-five acres each of land, they subscribing with its 
acceptance their " obedience to the authority of King and Parliament 
established in the colony according to our charter."' In the records 
" Town " gave place to " The Plantation," and English law under author- 
ity of King and Parliament superseded " arbitration." An order was 
issued from one of "said Courts" on the August 4th following,' and 
" warrants " commanding attendance at their court were issued by the 
Chief-officer Williams in the name of the King and Parliament; the 
warrants served by their Sergeant. The form of government now, with 
an Executive head and his Assistants, and its Courts and its Attendants, 
differed materially from the form.er one. It was the long desired 
authority and judicial order for the people." 

•Letter of Aug. 9, 1645, from the Assembly of the Colony of Prov. Plantations. 
Mass. Arch., ii, 6, post p. 'Williams' letter, R. I. Rec, i, 458. Williams 

letter, ist Mass. Collec, i, 278. "Early Prov. Rec.. xv, 5. 7. 9. ^t, etc. 

*Apr. 14, 1644. 'Early Rec. ii, 6. 'Early Rec, 11, 29- 

*Early Rec. xv, 7. "Early Reeds, of Prov.. xv, 9. Chronological Con- 

struction, Lands of R. I., 84. If what we have of the records of the beginmng 



62 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Cannonicus and the other Narrarjansett Sachems had, since tlie grants 
they had made to Greene and to Gorton, again exercised their right 
w'liich Massachusetts had forbidden them of disposing of their lands, 
and had granted a still larger tract outside of I'rovidence to Williams. 
This land was situated about where later the town of Wickford was 
built. It was free from conquest or other rights than those of the 
Narragansetts and of the English government granted in the charter. 
Williams, to be freed from the annoyances of the Pawtuxans, now 
sought relief here, erected a Trading House and took up his abode 
on ii.° Although the course of Harris or the Pawtuxet claimants was 
yet far from ended, this rout of Williams from Providence was the 
last rout of any prominence they effected, for with the charter a little 
more stable order v/as established.' 

An Assembly of the government of the Providence Plantations was 
held at Portsmouth in j\Iay of this year, 1645, against which a riotous 
demonstration was made by its opponents, they also breaking into the 
houses of Gorton and others, destroying their writings and carrying 
off the volumes in which the laws were printed." At this session a 
movement was made for apportioning some of the lands of the late 
grant among settlers. Preparations were also made for returning 
hom.e by some of the Shawomet people ; but all of this was cut short 
by a burst of opposition from Plymouth and Massachusetts, who were 
at rivalry for the territory. Brown of Plymouth had, on April 13th, 
been dispatched by the Plymouth Court" to look after their interests. 
He *' found them assembled in a meeting house granting land and such 
awful things," and he, in the name of Plymouth, forbade both tlie 
exercise of government under the charter and the distribution of the 
land. The Massachusetts Court also forbade the officers and Commis- 
sioners of the new government to exercise any authority under the 
charter or to distribute the land, or anyone to settle at Shawomet ; and 
directed their Commissioner, Benedict Arnold, to remove any who 
should settle there.'" " Massachusetts claimed the Sachems' last grant 
by various rights, among them that of conquest from the Pequots ; " 
so the Commissioners were dissuaded from alloting any land to the 
settlers for the present or until the matter could be amicably composed; 
" though," says Williams, " I questioned not our rights, etc., yet I 
feared it would be inexpedient and offensive and procreative of their 
heats and fires, and the dishonoring of the King's Majesty.'" 

Coddington and Brenton opposed the proceedings of the Assembly, 
although keeping aloof from it, apprehending danger from the people.' 

The disturbances at Providence had increased since Gorton left there. 
The Pawtuxet claimants, after the departure of Gorton and Williams 
from among them, became more defiant. On June 5th, 1645, the people 
of Providence were, upon complaint of William Arnold, served with 
Massachusetts attachments upon their lands.' Gorton says: "They 
ceased not to send out their warrants amongst us," and again a number 



of the povernment of the Providence Plantations were all together in order in 
one volume the organization and working order of the charter government 
would be in them clearly apparent. The government was not dependent on 
Coddington and his Elders joining it. 'Williams' letter, Nar. Club, vi, 

3.73-351. R- I- H. Tr., xiv, 57 note. Williams had been living there some time 
when Arnold visited him there in June, 1645. Mass. Rec. ^ *" We lived 

in no order but rout as Harris' beasts, as he calls all who cross him. until God 
was nleased to help me to procure a charter." Williams' letter, R. I. H. Tr 14. 
"R. I. Collec, ii, 80. 'Ply. Rec, 2d Winthrop, ii. 270. '"Mass. 

Rec, ii, 117. ^Williams, Nar, Club, vi, 333-351- 'Arnold's 

Hist. R. L, i, 160. •Force's iv, Tr. 6, p. 98. 'Simp. Def., Staples' 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 63 

of the people were summoned to Boston for trial ;* and the few aban- 
doned, unfinished houses and the lands at Shawomet were applied for 
and occupied by Massachusetts subjects. War was begun against the 
Narragansetts and white colonists, neither of whom had raised an arm 
either of aggression or resistance. 

On June i8th a company of forty armed men was sent by the Massa- 
chusetts Court to join their ally Uncas, the Mohegan Chief, against 
the Narragansetts.'' Meantime messengers were sent by the court to 
the Narragansetts to exact terms from them.* 

On June 28th a " meeting extraordinary " of the Commissioners of 
the United Colonies, in response to a call from the Massachusetts Court,' 
began at Boston. This court continued five weeks in session.* The war 
against the Narragansetts having begun,' requiring speedy course, it 
was agreed to take that first into consideration. The action of the 
Massachusetts Commissioners in having, without the previous consent 
of all the United Commissioners, sent the soldiers against the Narra- 
gansetts caused much sharp discussion." The Commissioners now met 
ordered the messengers. Sergeant John Davis, Benedict Arnold and 
Francis Smith, to secure the attendance of Cannonicus, Pessicus and 
other Narragansett Sachems at Boston and to inform them, in case they 
refused to come, that soldiers had been sent against them,' but that 
war should cease during negotiations.* 

The Sachems received the messengers with great suspicion, vowed 
that Arnold, who acted as interpreter, had in his former meetings with 
them misrepresented them and had threatened them with the accom- 
plished act, the death of Miantinomi, their Chief, for selling land to 
the proscribed people. Although the Sachems showed surprising com- 
posure in refraining from violence, three of them stood behind Arnold 
with raised hatchets while he was speaking.' The messengers, fearing 
danger and not hoping of better success at present, departed. They 
stopped that night at the Trading House of either Smith or Williams.* 
Before leaving, they had an interview with Williams and received from 
him a letter to the United Commissioners ; they then proceeded to 
Arnold's house at Providence or Pawtuxet, where they received a 
report of other threatening behavior of the Narragansetts from Arnold's 
family.' And they returned to the court at Boston with Williams' 
letter, a report of what they heard and had done, and of the rude usage 
they received from the Sachems; whereupon a Declaration of War 
against the Narragansetts was made and the reasons for it were ordered 
to be published.* Another companj' of soldiers was despatched to the 
aid of the Mohegan Chief with all expedition, and the rest of the forces 
from Massachusetts and Plymouth were ordered to join them at 
Seekonk on the eastern bounds of Mooshasuck, to enter the Narragan- 
sett country. Three hundred troops were ordered to be raised to be 
sent forth by the 22d of August at the furthest; and the officers were 
appointed and assigned to the command of them. A fleet of barks 
and other vessels, an additional force as seamen and mariners and 
ammunition and provisions were provided ; works for defense were 
ordered to be constructed, and soldiers advanced to Shawomet to build 
a fort upon it.' 

Ed. 167. ''Mass. Rec, iii, 39, 40, 42. Hutchinson's Papers, i, 167. 

•Hutchinson, i, 161. 'Mass. Rec, iii, 29. June 18, 1645. 

"Hutchinson, i, 153-153. 'Hutchinson, i, 154. "Hutchinson, i. 167. 

'Acts Commissioners United Colonies, i, 32, 33. ^Hutchinson, i, 161. 

•Acts Com. United Cols., i, 54. 'Hutchinson, i, 154, 162. 

•Hutchinson, i, 162. 'Hutchinson, i, 155, 164. 'Acts Com. 

United Cols., i, 34-36, Z7^ 39- Mass. Rec, ii, 72 ; iii, 40, 41. Fuller's Hist. 



64 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

The letter conveyed by the messengers to the Court of the United 
Commissioners, from Williams, informed them that a treaty of neu- 
trality was entered into between the Narragansetts and the government 
of the Providence Plantations.' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The August 9, 1645, Assembly of the Government of the Providence Planta- 
tions at Newport — Letter from the Assembly to Massachusetts — Their desire 
for civil government to preserve their lives and liberties caused them to pro- 
cure a charter — The Earl of Warwick recognizes and approves the organization 
of the government under the charter — Those in the government dare not yield 
themselves delinquent to answer at Massachusetts court — The government to 
employ messengers to prosecute the cause of the Providence Plantations before 
the government of England — Massachusetts claims to possess a prior charter 
for the Narragansett territory — Gorton chosen by the Assembly their Commis- 
sioner to England — Troops march against the Indians and Whites of the Prov- 
idence Plantations — Gorton, about August 16, 1645, departs on his mission — 
Plymouth's forces opposite Providence — Army delayed while messengers are 
again sent to treat with the Narragansetts — The Narragansetts send for Wil- 
liams and Wickes to council with them — The conditions of peace with Massa- 
chusetts signed — The official notice, August zj , 1645, of the alleged patent for 
the Narragansett lands sent by Massachusetts to the Providence government. 

Early in August and during the sessions of the Court of United Com- 
missioners at Boston an Assembly of the government of the Providence 
Plantations was held at Newport. During the latter's sessions Brown 
visited the island, urging the claims of Plymouth and forbidding the 
government tQ proceed. Here he remained some time, Gorton says, 
visiting the people of Newport at their houses, forbidding them to 
yield obedience to the charter.' Brown met Gorton here, who was an 
officer of the chartered government, and, Winslow says, still held the 
office of local Magistrate on the island.'" The Massachusetts Court 
also again served an order on the members of this Assembly, forbidding 
them to exercise any government, either in Pawtuxet or Providence, 
which, Winthrop says, they, from fear, did not disregard entirely. 
Their deliberations regarding it and why they would not yield to it are 
given in a letter written by Williams, subscribed to by the Secretary, 
on August 9th, 1645, and addressed to the Massachusetts Court. The 
letter, after acknowledging the receipt of the Massachusetts letter, 
prays for "honorable attention" to the following: 

"A civil government we honor and desire to live in for all those good 
ends, which are attainable thereby, both of public and private nature. 
This desire caused us humbly to sue for a charter from our mother 
State and government; but as we belive your consciences are persuaded 
to govern our souls, as well as our bodies, and, yourselves will say, we 
have caxisc to endeavor to preserve our souls and liberties, which your 
consciences must necessarily deprive us of, and either cause greater 
distractions and molestations to yourselves and us at home, or cause 
our further removal and miseries, we cannot but wonder, that being 
now found in a posture of government from the same authority, unto 
which you and we equally subject, you should desire us to forbear the 
exercise of such a government, without an express from that authority 
directed to us. 

Warwick, 25. Hazard's Collec, ii. 27-51. 'Hutchinson, i. 146, 154. 

•R. I. Collec, ii, 167, 168. 2d Winthrop, ii, 270, 308. Force's iv Tr.. 6, p. q8. 
"Winslow, 83. Arnold, i, 160. Gorton, Staples' Ed. *The 6th month 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 65 

"And we the rather zvonder because our charter as it was first granted 
and first established, so it was also expressly signiHed unto you all in 
a letter from divers Lords and Commons, at the sending out of our 
charter, out of a loving respect both to yourselves and us. 

" Besides, you may please to be informed that His Excellency, the 
Lord Admiral, hath lately divers times been pleased to own us under 
the notion of Providence Plantations, and that he hath signified unto 
us (as we can show you in writing) the desire of Plymouth to infringe 
• our charter, but his own favorite resolution not only to maintain our 
charter to his uttermost power, but also to gratify us with any favors, 
etc. In all of which respects we see not how we may dare to yield 
ourselves delinquents and liable to answer in your court, nay, as your 
writing seems to import, why we cast not away such noble favors and 
grace unto us. It is true that divers amongst us express their desire 
of composing this controversy between yourselves and us, but consider- 
ing that we have not only received a challenge from yourselves, but also 
from Mr. Fenwick and also from Plymouth and also from some in the 
name of the Lord Marquis Hamilton (all of which claims we never 
heard until the arrival of our charter), we judge it necessary to employ 
our messengers and agents unto the head and fountain of all these 
streams and there humbly to prostrate ourselves and cause for a final 
sentence and determination — and this we are immediately preparing 
to do without any secret reservations or delays, not doubting but 
yourselves will feel satisfied with this our course. And in the interim, 
although you have not been pleased to admit us unto considerations of 
what concerns the whole country, as you have others of our countrymen, 
yet we cannot but humbly profess our readiness to attend to all such 
friendly and neighborly courses, and ever rest you assured in all ser- 
vices of love. 

" Henry Walton, Secretary. 
" The Colony of Providence Plantations, 

Assembled at Newport, 9th, 6th ]\Io., 1645.* 
" To the Right Woshpls and their much Houn'd Friends and Contry- 
men. The General Court of the Massachusetts Colonic assembled 
at Boston." 
This letter from this Assembly was sent to Winthrop by Williams. 
He " never," he says, " received the least reply."^ 

Gorton, Holden and Greene were employed by the Assembly as the 
messengers and agents to the home government to present the cause of 
the Providence government and the people for a determination. 

The reasons for the war were published by the United Colonies on 
August nth at Boston; and word was sent by the Massachusetts 
officers to the officers of the Providence Plantations, who were probably 
yet in Assembly, that if they should stand as neutrals and not go out 
in the work with them they would make plunder of them. 

The first company of Plymouth troops left Plymouth on August 
15th.' The officers in command were commissioned " sole judges of 
the necessity of the expedition," to " have power to use and execute " 
fine, corporal punishment and capital punishment, and to seize both 
Indian and White suspects, which latter were the adherents to the 
chartered government, the leaders of the liberal or majority party 
of the Providence Plantations, and to bring them to Boston.* 

was August, old style. The Secretary's name was first printed Watson, but in 
the original document it is plainly Walton. Mass. Arch., ii, 6. Proc. Mass. 
Hist. Soc, June, 1862. "Remarks on the Narragansett Patent" published by 
Sidney S. Rider, Providence. Williams, 4th Mass. Collec, vii, 627. 

•Ply. Rec, ii, 90. *Acts Com. United Cols., i, 37-40. 'Gorton's 



66 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Gorton departed immediately without doubt following this and the 
close of the Assembly sessions. The condition was insufferable. The 
pass had been reached where it was impossible to proceed further in 
carrying on the government without further aid from the mother coun- 
try, or for the people longer without such aid to recover or maintain 
their possessions, to save their lives, or at least to save themselves 
from being taken as heretics or suspects for discipline and punishment 
to Boston. Gorton went to England only as a last resort in the extrem- 
ity of necessity, as the recent Assembly's letter to the Massachusetts 
Court expressed, " to preserve the souls and liberties " of the people in 
this emergency. The two other Agents and Commissioners of the char- 
tered government, Holden and Greene, went with him. They, too, as 
in Williams' case, were not allowed to enter the Massachusetts Colony 
to take ship from Boston, and so were forced, like him, to travel for 
this purpose to New York, that is, Manhattan.^ 

After their departure, the Plymouth forces under Capt. Standish 
rendezvoused at Seekonk, upon the river opposite Providence. While 
here encamped with his troops before the Massachusetts forces came, 
Standish, observing that some of Providence received the Narragansetts 
into their houses familiarly, he demanded of them to lay aside their 
neutrality and declare which side they were on. Gorton, in his plea 
to the English government, stated as dispatched to him, that Standish 
summoned the Providence Plantations to renounce the neutrality and 
declare themselves to be either on his side or enemies.' 

The Massachusetts army was delayed by considerations of the magni- 
tude and expense of such a war, her accountability to the English 
government, the protests of the Providence Plantations and many of 
the Massachusetts people.' This resulted in having, on August i8th, 
another committee, consisting of Capt. Harding and Mr. Wilbour, with 
Benedict Arnold again as interpreter (all of them paid subjects of 
Massachusetts, although not residents there), appointed to visit the 
Narragansetts to treat with them.' The Narragansetts this time refused 
to council with the committee unless they dispensed with the services 
of Benedict Arnold, accusing him as before of being their enemy and 
of misrepresenting them.* Arnold also, fearing, refused to go without 
an armed guard of a hundred men. The Narragansetts sent for 
Williams and Wickes, the latter one of those formerly chosen by the 
Narragansetts their Commissioners to make known their submission 
deed and grievances to England, to come and council with them. 

The Narragansetts, having honorably abided by their agreernent atid 
refrained from making their threatened avenging war,'° until every 
vantage ground was acquired by the United Colonies, and considering 
that as the allied armies of these colonies and the Mohegans had or 
were about to invade Providence and Warwick to seize both Indian 
and white suspects, the impending war if continued would, as intended 
by those who waged it, destroy the refugee settlements and sacrifice 
the lives of many of these white people; as a matter of prudence, as 
well as from faith in the Royal protection and eventual righting of 
"what wrong is or may be done," after the matter was laid before 
Parliament by the colonies' messengers, Williams counseled the Narra- 

departure was about Aup. i6, i64t;. He wrote his "Incorruptible Key " after 
he in 1644 returned to and before his departure from the island; published in 
London and printed on its title, " Penned in Rhode Island." ^*2w"" ^ 

Defense, q?, Winslow's Defense, 85. 'Mass. Rec, iii, -(O. t .^''j 

Rec. ii, 122-125. Acts Com. United Cols.. 1, 41, 42- '•'^cts Com. United 

CoR, i, 42, 43. R. I. Collec, ii, 265. 3d Mass. Collec, i, 8. '".^.nte pac^ina. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 67 

gansetts to accept, at a present sacrifice, the hard terms of peace that 
the United Colonies offered them. 

The Narragansetts, aUhough now a strong nation, moved by their 
love for these men and confiding in the belief that the English govern- 
ment would right the wrong and enforce the redress which was the 
condition of their submission and cession, when this should be fully 
presented to it, accepted the advice of their councillors and consented 
to what was a disastrous agreement, making of their nation a tributary 
people. The treaty, which bound them to unjust and almost impossible 
obligations and conditions of peace, required four of the Indian chil- 
dren, which were delivered to the Magistrates as hostages for their 
fidelity, was concluded at Boston the 27th day of August, 1645/ 

The letter following, giving some of the particulars of the present 
settling of these difficulties, was on November 20th sent to Gorton's 
destination in England : 

" We are all in health at this present and cheerful [the great want is 
your company], though men generally more invective than ever. The 
Bay had provided an army to go against the Narragansetts had they 
not been prevented in the very interim thus : Capt. Harding informed 
the court of the difficulty of the enterprise, upon which the court 
employed him and Mr. Wilbour to go to the Narragansetts and take 
Benedict Arnold to interpret. When they came to Benedict, he refused 
to go without a hundred men in arms, only to possess them with danger 
to effect his bloody plot; upon which Mr. Williams being sent for to 
Narragansett, and also myself, to inquire of us what the minds of 
these mad people were to kill men for nothing, I went to Providence 
athinking to go with Master Williams ; but when I came there he was 
gone with the Captain and Mr. Wilbour upon Benedict's refusal. I 
staid their return, and their agreement was to have Pessicus go into 
the Bay, and Master Williams was necessitated to put himself hostess 
until his return. The news coming into the Bay did so vex the ministers 
that Mr. Cotton preached upon it, that it being so wicked an act to 
take Master Williams with them, being one cast out of the church. 
It was all one as to take counsel of a witch, and that those who did it 
were worthy to die; upon which Mr. Wilbour was ready to die for 
fear he would be hanged. So then the Indians went down and they 
compelled them to cease war with Uncas and to pay them five hundred 
pounds for charges of court and provisions for soldiers, and to leave 
four of their Chiefs' children till the money be paid, and to leave four 
of their chief men till the children came; and to promise them not to 
sell any land without their consent. This being done, they came home 
again and sent a man to tell me what was done, telling me that if 
the Lord in England help them not they are like to suffer at present; 
but still they say they are not afraid of them, but only give them their 
demands rather than to war before the Lord hear of it, that all may 
see they mean no hurt to English, but will submit to the laws of Eng- 
land; concluding it is but lent, it will come home with advantage both 
to their wisdom and profit. Pessicus hath been often with me to desire 
me to inform you of these things. With great desire to see you again, 
your ever loving friend J. W., Nov. 20, 1645.'" 

The Narragansetts, now prevented from protecting Williams and his 
friends of the Providence Plantations against Massachusetts, as they 
were disposed to do upon occasion, the Massachusetts Court, before 
the close of the day on which the treaty was signed and they obtained 

'Acts. United Corns., i, 44, 49. Drake's Book of the Trdians. 'R. I. 

Collec, ii, 170-172. *"Then Chief -officer of the Colony," Williams, 



68 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

the hostages, on August 27th, 1645, sent to Williams as the Chief- 
officer' of the new government an official notice of their possession of 
what they called a patent for the lands of the Narragansetts, " wherein 
Providence and the island of Aquidneck are included."* The paper 
they called a patent bore the date of December loth, 1643, which was 
more than three months prior to the date of the charter obtained by 
Williams; nearly one and three-quarter years before the present official 
assertion and brandishment of it as a charter over the Providence 
Plantations." 



CHAPTER IX. 

The mortgages and deeds secured by the Athertons, Arnolds and other Massa- 
chusetts subjects for Narragansett, Shawomet and Providence lands — Provi- 
dence Plantations people subscribe to their chartered government — It grants 
them lands — The Massachusetts court meets October i, 1645, and grants Shaw- 
amet lands to their subjects — Brown, a Plymouth subject, forbids the Massachu- 
setts subjects to settle on it — Captain Cook sent to England to aid other agents 
there defend Massachusetts' actions — Vassal's religious toleration movement 
extends to Massachusetts — Gorton's departure from Manhattan — He, in Janu- 
ary, 1645-6, reaches England — His complaint to the Parliament Commissioners. 

The Narragansetts were not long able to endure the imposed penalty 
and forfeits, and Major Atherton of Massachusetts and other astute 
Commissioners of the United Colonies, who had organized for the 
purchase of Indians lands, '" assisted them," and received therefore a 
mortgage and deed of the great tract designated " the Atherton pur- 
chase."^ 

Those charged with the government of the Providence Plantations 
did not, however, " yield themselves delinquent to Massachusetts." 
Williams replied to the Massachusetts Court, to Winthrop, he says, 
in words " he believed weighty and righteous ; "' and they continued 
to hold their Assemblies and granted to the landless inhabitants many 
of the unoccupied acres, the people almost unanimously subscribing 
to and " agreeing to yield obedience to the authority established in the 
colony according to the charter."' 

The Massachusets Court met on the first of October. During its 
sessions the Shawomet lands were again applied for by its subjects 
and ten thousand acres of it granted to twenty families who, under 
Benedict Arnold, attempted to possess themselves of the property.* 

During this October William Arnold placed on record in Boston a 
deed for the Shawomet lands, from the sub-Sachem Socononico to 
"William Arnold, Robert Cole and William Carpenter, who all had 
subjected themselves to l^.Tassachusetts; it bearing the date of January 
30th, 1641, antedating the original deed of January 12th, 1642, for 
Shawomet which Gorton obtained from the Chief Sachem Miantinomi. 

During the same year Benedict Arnold placed on record in Boston a 
deed for the Shawomet lands as far as the Pawtuxet river extended, 
from the subjected sub-Sachem to himself, a subject of Massachusetts. 
It was dated 1644. 

Also in same vear William Arnold procured and placed on record in 
Boston a deed for the Meshanticut land, which was the southern 

4th Mass. Collec. vii, 627. *R. I. Rec. i, 1.13- 'R- J- ^ec., i, 

T33. R. I. Collec. iii. 161. *R. I. Rec, ii. 128. 'Wilhams 

letter. *R. I. Collec, v, 60. Staples' Annals of Prov., 60, Jan. 19, 

1645-6. Early Rec, Prov. R. I. H. Tr., 14. p. 36 note. »Mass. Rec, 11, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 69 

portion of Providence, from the subjected sub-Sachcm to himself. 
All these deeds were secretly obtained and secretly taken with the 
sub-Sachems to Boston and there recorded. They were never recorded 
in Providence. The purpose of the Arnolds being to throw the Colonies' 
lands under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, when these deeds to them 
.would be effective." 

Brown of Plymouth, who had remained long upon the island visiting 
the people and had been convinced of the justice of Gorton's cause 
while tarrying there, proceeded thence to Shawomet, where the Massa- 
chusetts subjects had gone to view for settlement, and forbade them in 
the name of Plymouth, declaring that the land belonged to Gorton. 
This being reported to the court, it sent a messenger to Plymouth to 
inquire if they approved this.^ This court ordered that Richard Salton- 
stall and Capt. Cook should be joined with Mr. Pocock (a man of 
eminent ability and influence with the English government, who had 
lately been engaged by Massachusetts with the other Commissioners 
in England for Massachusetts) in negotiating for them before the Right 
Honorable the Earl of Warwick and the rest of the Commissioners of 
Plantations, etc., or before the high court of Parliament, if occasion 
required, concerning the two late grants or charters for the govern- 
ment or jurisdiction of lands adjoining to Narragansett Bay.^ If it 
were the younger Saltonstall, he did not leave for some time after.' 
Sr. Richard Saltonstall, who was in England and had in 1632 ably 
defended Governor Endicott of Massachusetts before the King's Council, 
was of but little present service to Massachusetts, he having experienced 
changed convictions regarding the justice of what he had defended 
and might be called upon to defend. From England he wrote : " To 
Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson, preachers to the church which is at Boston 
in New England: It doth not a little grieve my spirit to hear what 
sad things are reported daily of your tyranny and persecution in New 
England."* Capt. Cook, who had victoriously led the troops in the 
early assault upon the settlers of Providence and Shawomet, had, in 
one of the later invasions of Providence and Shawomet under his 
command, been himself, with some of his company, captured, but 
probably now had been released. He soon made his departure. 

A petition, the petitioners led by William Vassall of Scituate, Ply- 
mouth, for the government to allow and maintain full and free tolera- 
tion of religion to all men who would preserve the civil peace and 
submit unto government, wliich had been signed by a large share of 
the people of Plymouth and had fruitlessly been presented to the govern- 
ment there, was, through the added efforts of Dr. Robert Childs at 
Boston, signed by many of the most influential and presented to the 
Deputies or Representatives of the people in the government of Massa- 
chusetts without any better success. It will be remembered that upon 
an earlier movement and introduction of a resolution regarding it 
the Plymouth Governor, Prence, would not allow a vote." After the 
failure of the Massachusetts Deputies to effect anything for the petition- 
ers, the petition was presented to the Massachusetts court and then to 
the home government, entreating that His Majesty clear the govern- 
ment of the colonies of the distinction between church and civil state 
and the transactions of those that govern.' 

128, 129; iii, 49. Arnold's Hist., i, 191. '"The Lands of R. Island, 

Preliminary note and pp. 60-112, 160, 218, 219, 220, etc. Suffolk Records, Boston 
Book, i, Doc. 6,1. '2d Winthrop, ii, 30S. 'Mass. Rec, iii, 48. 

•Mass. Rec, iii, 171, Oct. 18, 1649. ' ^Hutchinson's Papers, ii, 127. 

Loyalists of America, by Egerton Ryerson, D.D., LL.D., i, 117-122. 
*Ante pagina. *2d Winthrop, ii, 319, 347. Hutchinson's Papers, i. 



70 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Peters and Weld, who were upon Williams' outstripping them for a 
charter ordered by the Massachusetts Court to return and give a 
particular account of their work at home, however, remained there, 
and other writings about the cause of the colony of Massachusetts 
were sent to them. 

Gorton had to wait some time at Manhattan for transportation, and 
then he could secure passage only to Holland, where he again lay await- 
ing passage into England. When upon arriving, the Massachusetts 
agenis who had so long preceded him had their story widely promul- 
gated and had secured the placing of themselves and such chief men of 
England as were their friends upon the committees to which the business 
was referred; an obstacle to the forwarding of the business or to any 
just hearing that could be removed only by much work and almost the 
wearing out of the weaker party with expense and long waiting.' 

The King, with his tired troops, was a fugitive among the mountains 
of Scotland ; and, although he held Oxford, a tree was oftener the 
canopy of State under which he held council. 

Gorton's intimacy with his excellent and potent friend, the Earl of 
Warwick, President of the Board of Parliament Commissioners, and 
his access to the records of the Board's proceedings, were quick assur- 
ances to him that no patent for the Narragansett country had been 
granted to Massachusetts. What they had reported as one was but the 
draft of one which was without [the Massachusetts agents, Weld and 
Peters, having failed to secure them] the majority of the signatures of 
the Parliament Commissioners. The Massachusetts agents being de- 
feated in the strife for a patent by Williams, had sent their incompleted, 
unpassed, unregistered, worthless paper to Massachusetts as an evi- 
dence of their, although defeated, yet earnest endeavors.* Yet, undis- 
mayed and still trying to throw off the blame put upon them by Massa- 
chusetts, they were now diligently laboring to have the patent to 
Williams recalled and their embryo-patent perfected. In Gorton's 
first work there, he says, he met " both ministers and Magistrates and 
others," of Massachusetts, " pleading their cause that the said charter 
might be authentic, which would have happened if Warwick men had 
not opposed it."" 

Weld and Peters were able and serviceable men to Massachusetts 
and formidable opponents to Gorton and the Providence Plantations. 
Weld was one of the Synod who found and " confuted " the eighty-two 
" Wheelright errors," and was the editor of Rise, Reign and Ruin, a 
volume of preposterous stories, believed to have been compiled by Win- 
throp, of the horrible freaks of the dissenters he styled " antinomians,"'' 
a book widely distributed and read and believed by many in New Eng- 
land and England, prejudicing them against dissenters such as Williams, 
Hutchinson and the rest of the Providence Plantation people.* 

Peters, too, was an assiduous and successful laborer for Massachu- 
setts and a man of great influence with Cromwell. He took an active 
p.irt in the transactions of the Commonwealth and became Cromwell's 
favorite Chaplain and Counsellor. He possessed a spirit of unconquer- 
able energy and perseverance, was fervid and impressive in his elo- 
quence, popular as an orator, and of great courage. He preached before 
the court that tried the King Charles the First, urging his condemnation, 
and after the sentence (according to the fashion in England) before the 

205, 222. Mass. Rec, iii, 90, Nov. 4, 1646. 'R. I. Collec. ii. 228. 

•.•\nte and post p., Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1862, Aspinwall's Remarks on the 
Narragansett patent. "R. I. Rec, ii. 80. ""First published in 

1644 with Weld's "Preface" and "Some Additions." 2d Winlhrop, i, 284, 20,1. 
310, 314; ii, 30, 92, 164, 260. Ellis' Annie Hutchinson, 301. 'Arnold's 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 71 

execution preached the funeral sermon to the King, a terrible denun- 
ciation/ This glimpse at the formidable character of the men and 
measures of Massachusetts reveals but faintly a few of the obstacles 
against which it was Gorton's heroic task to contend. 

The Complaint or Memorial of the Providence Plantations to the 
Parliament Commissioners was set forth in a paper written by Gorton 
dated January i6th, 1645-6, prepared doubtless during his voyage. It 
told of the wrongs inflicted upon the people of these plantations, their 
removal from their houses and lawfully purchased possessions, the 
trials for error in their religious opinions, the usurpations by the 
Colonies of power not granted in their charters, and their tyrannical 
use of it upon them, and their banishment, not only from the territory 
granted to them in their charter, but from all the land purchased by 
themselves of Miantinomi beyond their limits, of Massachusetts and 
Plymouth claims and their jointly violating and obstructing the charter 
granted to Williams, and the commands of Massachusetts and of Ply- 
mouth that they refrain from exercising any authority of the govern- 
ment they had organized under the charter and in which themselves 
were officers. It recounted the wrong done to the Narragansett nation, 
and set forth their act of submission and cession to the English govern- 
ment of all their dominion ; the proceedings of Massachusetts and 
Plymouth against the Narragansetts to take the country they had 
ceded to England, and which fell within the compass of the charter 
granted to Williams, by destroying them with the sword. It also 
stated that word had been sent to Providence that if they should stand 
as neutrals in the war and not go out with them in the work they would 
make plunder of them. 



CHAPTER X. 

The King's flight, April 2T, 1646, from Oxford — Gorton publishes his complaint 
and the Narragansett Indians' submission and cession — The falsity of Massa- 
chusetts' claim of a patent for Narragansett exposed by the President of the 
Parliament Commission in open session — Parliament Commissioners' mandate 
to Massachusetts confirming their grant to Williams and commanding observ- 
ance and obedience — The wisdom and moderation of Gorton's petition com- 
mended — The Massachusetts English agent, Peters, sends for the Governor of 
Massachusetts to come over and assist in overturning what Gorton had accom- 
plished — Coddington renders Massachusetts and Peters great assistance — 
Coddington's letter to Winthrop— He denies the freedom of the island to his 
opponents — Representatives of mainland and inland tovvns had joined the 
government of the Williams charter — Coddington still with his briefless court ; 
derides liberty of conscience ; sends records and papers to Massachusetts for 
their English agents' use against the chartered government — Winslow sent 
by Massachusetts to England to assist Peters and others and to reply to Gorton 
— Mather terms Winslow an Hercules — His pre-eminent abilities — His other 
equipments — Favorable conditions for Massachusetts — A printing press at Cn.m- 
bridge, Mass. — A plethoria of Massachusetts books and writings — Winslow has 
a day appointed for an audience before the Parliament Commissioners. 

The absence of the King, his flight from Oxford on the 26th of April, 
1646,' preventing communication with him, Gorton published the Act 
of the Narragansetts and the principal matter of his complaint in a 

Hist. R. I., i, 62-65. Palfrey's Hist. N. E., i, 405, 496 notes. '3^ Mass. 

Collec, ix, 286. Barry's Mass., i, 207. Ryerson's Loyalists of America, i, 85, 125. 
Echard's Hist. Eng., 3d London Ed., Book i, 778, Charles First, Book iii, 656. 
"Disrael's Life of Charles First, ii, 391-443. 'Force's tract 6, Vol. iv. 



•^2 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

volume entitled " Simplicity's Defense Against Seven Headed Policy," 
from London, August 3d, 1646.* 

Gorton's petition contained no plea for redress for losses nor for 
injuries done him or anyone, but that the Massachusetts Magistrates be 
restrained from exercising authority beyond their chartered jurisdic- 
tion, and that the rights of the natives and the natural and chartered 
rights of the people of the Providence Plantations be regarded, and 
they be restored to their lands and houses under them.' 

At a full meeting of the Parliament Commissioners of Plantations, 
to whom Gorton's memorial was addressed, the Lord High Admiral, 
the Earl of Warwick, informed Gorton in open board that he knew 
of no other charter for these parts than that Mr. Williams had obtained, 
and he was sure that charter Massachusetts pretended had never 
passed the table." There was no registry of any such paper, and an 
examination of it disclosed that its date, December loth, 1643, was a 
Sunday when Gorton was languishing in Massachusetts in irons. It had 
not the names to it of a majority of the Parliament Commissioners, 
which was necessary for it to pass, if they were genuine signatures.' 

A mandate was drawn up by the Parliament Commissioners to the 
government of Massachusetts which silenced its profession to any other 
late charter than that to Williams, affirming this grant and to its pro- 
visions commanding the Massachusetts Magistrates' obedience. A copy 
of the complaint and petition was enclosed with the mandate of the 
Commissioners, dated May 15th, 1646, to Massachusetts, viz.: "To 
suffer the petitioners and all others, late inhabitants of Narragansett 
Bay, freely and quietly to live and plant upon Shawomet and all other 
lands included in the patent lately granted to them without extending 
your jurisdiction to any part therein, or otherwise disquieting their 
consciences or civil peace, or interrupting them in their possession, 
until we have received your answer to their claims in point of title 
and you shall have received our further orders therein. 

The Parliament Commissioners also commended the wisdom and 
moderation of the petitioners. They say : " You may take notice that 
we found the petitioners' aim and desire in the result of it was not so 
much a reparation for what had passed as a setting their habitation 
for the future under that government by a charter of civil incorporation, 
zihich was heretofore granted them by ourselves. The Narragansett 
Bay was divers years inhabited by those of Providence, Portsmouth and 
Newport who are interested in the complaint, and that the same is 
wholly without the bounds of the Masachusetts patent." And they 
required the trespassers to remove any persons who had taken posses- 
sion of Shawomet lands by their authority, and permit the petitioners 
to pass through their territory without molestation to their own homes. 
This was signed by the Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, the 
President of the Board of Parliament Commissioners, and by a majority 
of the other members." Capt. Cook was not allowed to return to New 
England. He joined Cromwell's army, and in 1652 met his death m 
the campaign in Ireland. 

Randall Holden, who went to England with Gorton, was made the 
bearer of the mandate of the Parliament Commissioners to Massachu- 

R I Collec, ii, 59, 60, 2-?4, 2■^s. 'Lord's and Commons' letter in R. I. 

Collec. ii, 195. Letter from Warwick, 228. ""Never passed the Council 

table nor repistered." R. L Rec. ii, 161. 162. R. L Collec, 111, 161, 162. 
*2d Mass. Collec, vii, 104. Col. Aspinwall, Mass. Hist. Soc Proc, 1862. Narra- 
Ransett Patent, Sidney S. Rider, Prov., " No such thinf? upon record in any court 
in Enj?: had searched the records." Brenton. "Theirs there, but not ours. 
Hutchinson, Mass. Arch., ii, 26. *R. L Rec, i, 365-369. R- I- Collec, 

195, -228. 'Among the signers was Mr. Fenwick, the grantee, in an 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS.. 73 

setts and the glad news to the Providence Plantations. He arrived 
at Boston on September 13th, 1646. He brought with him also a pass- 
port of same date from the Lord High Admiral and nine other of the 
Commissioners, directed to the government and Magistrates of Massa- 
chusetts, in it repeating their order and further requiring that Samuel 
Gorton and his company might land at any port in New England and 
" pass without any of your let or molestations through any part of the 
continent of America within your jurisdiction to the said tract of land. 
Hereof you may not fail and this shall be your warrant." Gorton 
remained in England upon the further business requiring him. 

A report of the complaint and petition made by Gorton had been 
received in Masachusetts long before the official copy enclosed with 
the mandate was received, and other papers about the case were sent 
by the Massachusetts Court to Peters and Wild, their agents in Eng- 
land ; but in November the Massachusetts Court received word from 
Peters that the writings which were sent over last were not sufficient, 
and for the Governor to come over and assist them ;'" but it was feared 
that if the Governor went he would be detained there, and so it was 
resolved to send another and also to send new writings to strengthen 
their position. 

Coddington, as he says, " to further that end," engaged in serving 
them with material for amplifying their writings against Gorton and 
the Providence Plantations, craftily preparing for Massachusetts " The 
Sum of the Presentment," as he called it, against Gorton, and secretly 
entertaining at his home upon the island Massachusetts emissaries 
whom he despatched in the morning early. He writes to Governor 
Winthrop on November nth the following: " I thought meet to inform 
you that your son, Mr. John and all his departed from our island on 
the 3d day in the morning early; the wind not being good to clear 
them further than Block Island, but on the 4th day in the morning it 
was very good, so that I doubt not they are all safely arrived before the 
storm began; by whom I received your letter of the 21st of October. 
For Gorton and his company they are to me as they ever have been, 
their freedom of the island is denied and zvas zvhcn I accepted the place 
I nozv have. The Commissioners have joined them in the same charter, 
though we maintain the government as before. To further that end 
you zvrote of, I sent to Mr. Cotton to be delivered to Mr. Elliot, that 
requested it, zvhat uas entered upon the records, under the Secretary's 
hand; zvhich I do think you may do zvell to make use of, because I hear 
it sinks most zvith the Earl, zvhere they have liberty of conscience. 
Mr. Peters' writes in that you sent your son p'secute ;* and so in haste 
not doubting as occasion serves, to approve myself yours ever, William 
Coddington."' 

These passages from letters to Governor Winthrop exhibit the rela- 
tion of Coddington to the Colony of Providence Plantations. He is the 
instrument employed by Massachusetts to defeat the union of the towns, 
by which alone they could hope to secure independence of her. He is 
employed by her agent to procure from the public records such 
extracts as might be made to appear objectionable to the honorable 

old patent for which a claim had been made. Ante p. "::d Winthrop. ii, 

92, 260, 332, 334. 'Thos. Peters of Sayhrook. who was younger brother 

of Hugh Peters of Salem, one of the foreitrn acrents of Mass., went to En.e. in 
1646 and returned no more. Trumbull's Hist. Conn., i, 292, 299, Savage's Diet. 
4th Mass. Collec, vii, 428 note. And neither Hugh Peters nor Thomas 

Weld ever returned to New England. Coddington who soon joined them all there, 
writes of Hugh Peters : " I was merry with him and called him the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury." ' Purposely to execute. ' Mass. 



74 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Board of Commissioners for foreign plantations; and how super- 
serviceable he desires to be in this capacity he shows by insiduously 
calling particular attention to the act relating to liberty of conscience 
as likely to sink most with the Earl of Warwick, the President of the 
Board.* 

The Massachusetts Court, upon receipt of the mandate and the call 
for help from Peters, addressed themselves unto Mr. Winslow to take 
another voyage for England, that he might thus procure their deliver- 
ance from the designs of many troublesome adversaries that were 
petitioning unto Parliament against them; and this Hercules, having 
been from his very early days accustomed unto the crushing of that 
kind of serpents, generously undertook another agency. He sailed from 
Boston the middle of December, 1646." 

Winslow was selected as the one pre-eminently qualified for the most 
important mission. He was accounted " the most able and earnest " 
advocate in the colonies. "A fit man,'' Winthrop said, " to be employed 
in our affairs in England, both in regard to his abilities of presence, 
speech, courage and understanding, as also being well known to the 
Commissioners.'" With portions of the Island's public records, and 
" The Sum of the Presentment against Gorton " supplied by Codding- 
ton,' the " Book of News " by Winthrop," the writings of other Magis- 
trates and ministers, an address from the Massachusetts Court charg- 
ing almost everything against the heretics to justify the Magistrates' pro- 
ceedings against them, and various captured papers copied " not verbatum 
only, but literatum,'"* he was the best all-round equipped and reinforced 
advocate that an opponent, " almost without friends," ever met and 
stood up against alone.*" Then, too, " the times had greatly changed " 
since the granting of the charter to Williams ; now " the Puritans being 
in power in England, Mr. Winslow had great advantage in the business 
from the credit and esteem which he enjoyed with that party.'" 

During the twenty years of Parliament and Commonwealth reign, 
1640 to 1660, Massachusetts was the favorite of Cromwell. They 
enjoyed the favor that no other colony enjoyed or received, the commo- 
doties of all nations free of duty.' They had other advantages over the 
neighboring colonies. They had the exclusive control of the only 

Arch. *Dr. H. E. Turner, ist R. I. H. Tr., No. 4- 'Cotton 

Mather's Magnalia, Book ii, ch. i. 2d Winthrop, ii, 346, 359, 365, 387. Mass. 
Rec, ii, 161, 165. Gov. Haynes of Conn, went over probably as a colleague to 
Winslow in the same vessel with him, and remained as much as a year and a half 
in Eng. Palfrey's Hist. N. E., ii. 176 note. « 2d Winthrop, ii, 346. 

'See Appendix. 'R. I. Collec, ii, 197, 198, 200. 4th Mass. Collec, vi, 

181, 182. Ante p. The book of News contained a pretended copy of a letter 
of Williams to Winthrop, accusing Gorton of ''bewitching" the people with his 
new and radical opinions, which probably originated at this time with Codding- 
ton's Presentment. It bears date Mar. 8, 1646, supposedly just before, but really 
aftor Gorton's departure for England. Gorton had been chosen and dispatched by 
Williams and all of his friends to sustain his charter. They were intense friends 
and coadjutors, and this pretended copy of Williams' letter for the Mass. magis- 
trates' use against them and in England manifestly was an invention. No such 
letter in v.-riting was ever found, and Winthrop seems to have nreserved all of 
tb?r". A printed coppv of the printed nretended letter is among the Narragansett 
Club's edition of William.s' preserved letters. Dr. Janes' " A Forgotten Founder 
of Our Liberties." p. ?5 note. 'R. T. Collec, ii, 105, 198, 200, ?n2. 

Winslow's Hyp. Unmasked. Part First. Force's iv, Tr. 6. p. s.^ 'The 

Gov. Winthrop, Mr. Tyng, Capt. Keayne and the Auditor General were appointed 
a Committee to see to the transcription of all such instruments for furnishing 
Mr. Winslow for affairs in Eng., to be delivered to him before he go on board, 
Mass. Rec, ii, 171. Mr. Tyng was one of those who with Capt. Cook were 
arrested when upon one of the after-marches upon Providence and Warwick. 
4th Mass. Collec, vi, 380; vii. 284. 'Winslow's Memorial Intd.. p. 52.^ 

*Ryerscn's Loyalists of America, t, Rq-gg, tt2, 178. Palfrey's Hist. N. F.., ii, 
bk. 2. ch. X, p. 393. *Ryerson's loy. of Amer., i, 183. Hildreth's 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 75 

printing press (that at Cambridge) in America for nearly twenty 
years, with licenses prohibiting the publication of any book or paper not 
approved by them.' For want of a sufficient population it was not 
until 1709 that a printing press could be maintained in Providence or 
on the island.* There was, as a consequence of these conditions, a 
plethora of only Massachusetts books and writings, many being printed 
and sent over to England. 

Winthrop says that upon Winslow's arrival there he had a day 
appointed for audience before the Earl of Warwick and^ the Commis- 
sioners of Plantations, Gorton appearing in Rhode Island's (the Provi- 
dence Plantations) defense." Although Winslow was, as Mather _ says, 
an "Hercules," and he also had "great advantages in the busmess' 
through his assistant Massachusetts agents and counsellors and official 
friends, Gorton unaided and almost alone, had the "herculean talk." 
Added to the Massachusetts array of influence and talent against him 
was the ingenious opposition that came from Coddington and the other 
opponents of the charter, the Arnolds. In but few instances did man 
ever defend a cause so successfully against such an avalanche of 
assailants and assaults, his assailants having such unfair advantage of 
him.' The virulent book " Rise, Reign and Ruin of the Antmomians 
was now extensively circulated and read in England. It cited instances 
of alleged monstrous births among the Providence people as proofs of 
their moral monstrosities and their disfavor with the Almighty and 
intimated charges of witchcraft against them.' Cotton's book^ ^^^^J^ 
Tenets Washed" was also published at this time in London; and the 
" Book of News " with the address of the Massachusetts Court and 
the other before described writings to justify the proceedings against 
Gorton, together with the other material furnished by Coddington, had 
been printed and distributed, and were included by Winslow in his 
defense. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The hearing before the Parliament Commissioners— Winslow's and Gorton's re- 
quests—The Parliament Commissioners refuse all of Winslow s requests and 
erant all of Gorton's— Winslow proceeds to have the Providence charter called 
in_Winslow again defeated— The Providence charter to stand— Massachu- 
setts commanded to not remove the people, but to assist and protect tliem— 
Gorton and Winslow correspondence— No further opposition from Winslow— 
Gorton leaves England for home. 

Under these unauspicious prospects for Gorton the hearing before 
the Commissioners of Parliament was called on May 25th 1647. Win- 
slow without evidence for the territorial claims made by Plymouth 
and Massachusetts, was constrained to principally rely for his siiccess 
upon the common weapon against heretics; the calumny furnished him 
against the Providence agent and people; and Gortons election as a 
Mao-istrate was mentioned by him as a catastrophe and evidence o. the 
danger threatening the colonies from such men as he. Wins ow s 
address was arranged in three parts. The first was Winthrop s News, 
adroitly edited and improved, and the Massachusetts Courts charges, 
urging the injurious results that would follow m respect to the Massa- 
chusetts attempts to convert the Indians, if Gorton and company should 

United States, i. 456. . ^ ^Greene's Hist R I.. 1.9. .,/^^iS'l'-'":' 

it 387. 'Ryerson's Loy. Amer.. 1, 97. 138- • uiot RlnfiW^ 

"98 notes. 'Rider's Hist. Tr 17, PP- i4. iS- Armitage s Hist. BapUsts, 



yd LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

be " countenanced and upheld," and the other writings all " examined 
and allowed by the general court holden at Boston." The second part 
was a further account of Gorton, falsely accusing him of blasphemy 
and of encouraging the Indians to war. The third part was " The Cause 
of the Planting of New England" reviewed, with efforts to show that 
great danger threatened the colony from " such as Gorton and his 
company," that the practice of Massachusetts was not to punish for 
heresy, but for contempt " toward the authority God had betrusted " 
to them ; that the " severe law " complained of they " never did or will 
execute the rigor of," but were " loth to repeal or alter the law because 
we would leave it " to " bear witness against their judgment and prac- 
tice."' Winslow's defense was soon after republished with a full table 
of contents under the titles of " The Danger of Tolerating Levelers " 
and "A More Particular Account Including the Former One." By 
these and various other methods the heretics were made to appear odius 
to many and deserving of all or more than the most charged or that 
could be done to them. 

Winslow, in his address to the committee, made five requests: First, 
that they would " strengthen the cause of Massachusetts by their favor- 
able approbation." Second, that they would never suffer Samuel Gorton 
any more to go to New England. Third, that they would suffer New 
Plymouth to enjoy their former liberties in the line of their government, 
which included their the Providence government's " very seat even," 
Providence and Shawomet. Fourth, that they would " patronize " him in 
the "just defense" which he was making and thus place his constituents 
under obligations to " engage with and for the Parliament and the 
Commoners against all opposers of the State (England) to the last 
drop of blood in their veins."'" 

Not all of Gorton's address to the committee on this occasion is 
preserved, but Winslow's requests Gorton probably offset with the same 
requests as applied for himself and Providence, among them that the 
English government would " never suffer Winslow any more to go to 
New England." The result of the trial was the refusal by the Parlia- 
ment Commissioners to Winslow of every one of his requests and the 
granting of those of Gorton ;' and the issuance by them of a second 
letter to Massachusetts, admonishing them to confine their jurisdiction 
to within the limits of their sole patent. 

They say : " We did not intend by our former letter to restrain the 
bounds of your jurisdiction to a narrower compass than is held forth 
in your letters patent. Our resolution took rise from an admittance 
that the Narragansett Bay, the thing in question, was wholly without 
the bounds of your patent, the examination whereof will, in the next 
place, come before us, and whereas our said direction extended not 
only to yourselves, but also to all the other governments and planta- 
tions in New England whom it might concern, we declare that we 
intended thereby no prejudice to any of their just rights, nor the 
countenancing of any practice to violate them."' 

Winthrop says: "The Commissioners having thus declared them- 
selves to have an honorable regard of us and care to promote the 
welfare of the four United Colonies and other English plantations 
to the eastward, for they had confirmed Mr. Rigby's patent of Ligonia, 
and by their favorable interpretation of it had brought it to the seaside, 

6^6. 'Young's Chronicles. "Pref. Hyp. Unmasked. 

'Winslow was " never suffered any more to go to new England," but was given 
a position in the Eng. army. Mather's Magnalia, Book ii, ch. i. Gorton soon 
returned to his government with a letter from the Lord Admirable, cominanding 
the non-molestation of himself and people. 'May 25, 1647. ist Winthrop, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. ^^ 

whereas the words of the grant laid it twenty miles short [they were 
but twenty-four miles short of Shawomet] and had put Mr. Ferdinand 
Georges out of all as far as Soco, our agent proceeded to have the 
charter, which they had lately granted to those of Rhode Island and 
Providence, to be called in.'" To this object the efforts of Winslow 
and his assistants were applied, to be again defeated, the Commissioners 
deciding that the charter they had granted to Williams should stand. 
Massachusetts " was prohibited " from acting under the Weld paper 
and enjoined to confine their jurisdiction to the territory defined in their 
charter. The Massachusetts Magistrates never placed the Weld paper 
upon their government records, for it would have been too difficult to 
explain if they were called upon so to do by the English government 
or their Commissioners. It was not again during sixteen years men- 
tioned. Its promoters wisely let it sink into oblivion.* The Parliament 
Board decided that Commissioners upon the ground should examine 
and determine to which charter all the disputed territory belonged. 
And they issued, July 22d, 1647, another order to Massachusetts that 
"the government wherein whose jurisdiction they (the inhabitants) 
shall appear to be, not only not to remove them, but to encourage them 
with protection and assistance." These orders were all signed by a 
majority of the Parliament Commissioners and by those who were 
claimed as signers of the Weld paper. 

Gorton received from the Parliament Commissioners, single-handed 
against numbers of the most able and influential, all he asked for and 
all he could wish, except a " visible force " to compel the Massachusetts 
Magistrates to obey Parliament's mandates. The internal difficulties 
in England having a paramount claim upon the thoughts and resources 
of Parliament, the governments of the colonies were necessarily for 
the time neglected; yet, as a result of Gorton's work, the government 
of the Providence Plantations under their charter was so confirmed 
and determined that a fusion of all the parties on main land and island 
ensued, resulting in an agreement by them to the order established by 
the charter. Peace, however, was deferred, principally by the intrigues 
of Coddington and the impunity with which Massachusetts pursued 
her own way during the reign of Cromwell. 

" The final issue of Gorton's address to the Parliament Commission- 
ers," Arnold says, " not only prevented the Parliament from revoking 
their first decision, but also to have it confirmed, to the final discom- 
fiture of their implacable enemies."* 

Gorton says: "Mr. Winslow and myself had honorable correspond- 
ence in England and before the honorable committee, which he himself 
referred to, and not to wrong the chart I saw nothing to the contrary 
but that I had as good acceptation in the eyes of that committee as he 
himself had, although he had a greater charter and larger commission." 
Winslow and Gorton were early friends, dating from before the diffi- 
culties between the Providence Plantations and Massachusetts. Though 
as agent for Massachusetts to defend them against Gorton's complaints 
Winslow was obliged to make their defense against his judgment and 
with great reluctance, with such representations as they directed, some 
of them he would not have made of his own motion; and of Gorton, 
\Vinslow in his discretion is compelled to say that " time was when 
his person was precious in my sight." There must have been something 
spiritual about him to have drawn from him such an expression of 

ii, 319. 320. '2d Winthrop, ii, 386, 390, 39T. *R. T. Rec. ii, 

162. Col. Aspinwall, Mass. H. Soc. Proc, 1862. Remarks on Narrapansett 
Patent, Sidney S. Rider, Prov. "Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 219. 



78 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

affectionate regard. Winslow seems to have felt it necessary to excuse 
himself for saying the hard things he did say of him." 

Gorton, with the assurance of no further opposition from Winslow, 
in the spring of 1647-8 left for home with directions from the President 
of the Board of Parliament Commissioners of Plantations and with a 
letter commanding his protection in passing through Massachusetts. 
He and Winslow parted friends.' Winslow resigned his agency for 
Massachusetts and accepted an English commission from that govern- 
ment, and died at sea on the expedition against Hispanoli." 

There were many critical periods in the early history of the State. 
This was the first, and none could be more critical. Her chartered rights 
had been by her more powerful and influential rival denied, her terri- 
tory taken by armed possession and another government set up over it. 

It has been suggested that the claims Gorton presented were so just 
that success could not otherwise than attended his efforts. The 
justice of a cause does not insure it. The spirit of justice did not 
govern rulers generally, and the wonder is that he, against such multi- 
tude and variety of special and influential opposition, prevailed and pre- 
vented the Providence charter from being called in, the pretended Weld 
charter from being completed, the refugees from being delivered for 
punishment as requested, and the land from being divided up among 
the other colonies. The founding of the State is due to Roger Williams. 
Its preservation is due to Samuel Gorton. 



CHAPTER XII. 

A union Assembly, May, 16.17 — The Model Civil Government under English laws 
as first drawn up by Gorton and Hutchinson at Portsmouth on the island now 
agreed to by all the parties — All men privileged to " walk as their consciences 
persuaded them, in the name of Jehova their God" — Two governments— The 
Model Civil Government and the Judge and Elders Government contrasted^ 
Coggershall made second President, or Governor, of the chartered govern- 
ment Coddington, for third time left out of office, goes to Boston — War- 
wickers attempt to resettle at Warwick — Massachusetts sends Benedict Arnold 
and other of their officers to disperse them, and grants their lands to others — 
President Coggershall visits Warwick and interposes for his people. 

Of the owners of Shawomet now living at Portsmouth, Judge Bray- 
ton says : " They were all law and order men and for civil govern- 
ment. They all held allegiance to the crown of England and claimed 
to be governed by the laws of the Kingdom. They all held that the 
civil power could not rightfully meddle with the consciences of men or 
with their religious belief. They claimed that the laws of England were 
theirs and that English liberty was theirs; that they came from the 
mother country to Aese shores clothed with them; that it was their 
birthright, and thev had an abiding confidence that the government 
at home would in the end vindicate those rights." Besides these men, 
most of the inhabitants of Portsmouth were the same minded. They 
were the subscribers to the civil compact and were the members of 

•Judge Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tr. 17- Arnold's Hist. R. T., i. 168. Hutchinson's 
Hist. Mass., i, 552. Gorton's letter to Morton, Force's Tracts, Vol. iv. 
^Aspinwall, Proc. Mass. His. Soc, 1862. 'Acts Corns. U. Cols., i. 192- 

194. Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., i, 187. It is a singi:lar fact thrxt nearly all of 
the agents sent by the Mass. government to plead their cause to the F.ng. govern- 
ment, Thos. and Hugh Peters, Thos. Weld, Cant. Cook, Edward Winslow and 
others, were never allowed to return. 'Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 122. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 79 

that government, but were not of the government that Coddington now 
pretended over them. All these and the large majority of the whole 
of the people of the Providence Plantations had been anxiously await- 
ing to know what would be the final issue of Gorton's mission, trusting 
that the charter would be sustained and their rights and liberties pro- 
tected by law. The intelligence that the pretentious Weld paper was 
not a charter and that the Parliament Commissioners were zealous to 
uphold the charter granted to Williams were both " tidings of great 
joy to these people," and the means of so generally terminating the 
internal opposition as to bring about the union of those who had been 
Coddington's leading supporters with the chartered government.' 

A General Assembly at Portsmouth, May i8th, 1847, had, upon the 
suggestion of the Providence Commissioners, the call of the govern- 
ment to them all, a full representation from all the towns." The 
Commissioners representing Providence in the government, and the only 
body of Commissioners the names of which are preserved were Gregory 
Dexter, William Wickenden, Thomas Olney, Robert Williams, Richard 
Waterman, Roger Williams, William Field, John Greene, John Smith, 
and John Lippitt. There were two kinds of Commissioners from the 
island. The two sets, each chosen by the inhabitants of their own town, 
and the one set chosen by Coddington's limited number of freemen 
for both towns, the whole island. After much sparring, the Portsmouth 
Commissioners obtained a rule under which they proceeded to " act 
alone according to the Assembly's instructions," declaring themselves 
to be " as free as any other town in the colony." The Newport Com- 
missioners, however composed, were, that is 'those who were successful 
as such and were seated, most of them Coddington's friends. 

Shawomet had but about six settlers when the charter was written, 
but, as the reader has seen, provisions were made in the charter for 
all both present and furture settlements within its stated bounds. Gorton 
having named it Warwick, in honor of his friend the Earl of Warwick, 
it was represented with the other towns. Portsmouth, to insure the 
stability of their independence of Coddington, proposed an act that 
each town govern its own affairs, but the friends of the latter prevailed 
with an amendment that they "might work either apart or jointly,"' 
which left the matter in its unsettled condition, disappointing the 
people's expectations and heightening the feeling of unrest and dissat- 
isfaction. The Providence Commissioners' desires were expressed in 
resolutions, among them that all subscribe to the laws of England as 
had their Portsmouth friends, and the acceptance of the model of 
government that had been shown to them by their worthy friends of 
the island. The following propositions of the Portsmouth Commission- 
ers were adopted: That the plantations assent to receive and be gov- 
erned by the laws of England — not the church compact of Coddington; 
that " each town should have apart for the transaction of particular 
affairs a charter of civil incorporation ; " and that the model of govern- 
ment and laws which they submitted be accepted by the whole repre- 
sentation for the colonies.^ 

Peterson, in his history of Rhode Island, says that when the Codding- 
ton faction joined the charter government of the Providence Plantations 
"the town of Providence instructed their Commissioners to hold a 
correspondence with the whole colony ' in the model that hath been 
lately shown unto us by our worthy friends of the island,' and it appears 
that the plan of the government was framed by the people of the island 
and shown to those of Providence, who agreed to adopt them; and 

"R. I. Rec, i. 'R. I. Rec, i, 191. -"R. I. Rec, i, 43, 44. 147 



8o LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

thus from the legislation of the people of the island the free institu- 
tions emanated." But he does not credit to the proper islanders the 
principles which he says " operated like leaven in diffusing itself 
through the minds of the masses and formed the nucleus out of which 
ultimately sprang the Declaration of Independence." The government 
agreed to was not that of Coddington's, but that of Hutchinson-Gorton's 
on the island." 

The government agreed to by all present provided for a President 
and Chief Justice and four Assistants or Associate Justices, for a 
Court of Election annually in May, and for General and Quarterly 
Courts; for a Grand Jury, that men have their preemptory and other 
challenges to the full as they have them in England ; and for a Jury 
of Twelve men of the same town where the Court of Trial is held. 
The general code of laws, which concerned all men, was first approved 
by the towns [as the States adopted the Constitution and still adopt 
amendments] and was ratified by the General Assembly of the whole 
people. All legislative power was placed ultimately in the whole 
people in General Assembly convened. Towns might propose laws [as 
States amends to the Constitution] and the approval of a General Court 
of Commissioners might give them a temporary force; but it was only 
the action of the General Asembly (the General Government) which 
could make them general and permanent for all persons within the 
colony. But the towns had their local laws [as the States have theirs], 
which could not be enforced beyond their own limits ; and they had their 
town courts [as the States have State courts], >vhich had exclusive 
original jurisdiction over all causes between its own citizens.* 

The code contained rules, among them one severely condemning a 
judge for stooping to the roll of the advocate, directing that the judge 
in charging the jury " should mind the inquest of the most material 
passages and arguments that are brought by one and other for the 
case and against it, without alteration or leaning to one party or 
another, which is too commonly seen." And recorded that " as it would 
be too prejudical to the place or quiet government thereof for a man 
out of a discontented self-will, or other pretense, not to resign, together 
with his office belonging to the colony, island or town, to him that is 
chosen and appointed thereto. Be it therefore enacted by the authority 
of the present Assembly that whosoever hath or shall hereafter have 
books, papers or parchments that belong to the colony, island or town, 
or any other things appertaining thereto, shall within one month after 
another be chosen and appointed to take the charge thereof, deliver 
up safely into his hands all such books, papers, parchments and other 
things that were in his custody. And be it further enacted that he that 
shall not resign and deliver the books, papers, parchments and other 
things above specified within one month as he is appointed shall forfeit " 
as provided. It was enacted that a solemn profession before a judge 
should be accounted of as full force as an oath. 

At the close of the code appears these words : " These are the laws 
that concern all men, and these are the penalties for the transgression 
thereof, which by common consent are ratified and adopted throughout 
the whole colony; and otherwise than thus what is herein forbidden, 
all men mav v/alk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the 
name of God; and let the saints of the Most High walk in the 

'This government was the first one in these Plantations to have a judiciary or 
magistracy governing in only civil things. All its features were adopted, except- 
ing that of the chief officer. This may have been the result of Coddmgton s 
friends' pledge to vote only for him for Gov. or Judge. ^Historical 

Discourse, by Hon. Job Durfee. R. I. Rec. i, 191-208. 'R. I. Rec, Dr. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 8i 

colony without molestation, in the name of Jehovah their God, forever 
and amen.'" 

The form and character of this government was the exact antipode 
of Coddington's. The members of Coddington's court were selected 
by a very limited franchise. The members of his court were, up to 
nearly this time, no more enlightened with the belief in the rights of 
others to rule or to enjoy their opinions than were their Massachusetts 
brethren. They, like them, had removed not because they disavowed 
the doctrine of coercion, but because they did not like themselves to be 
the subjects of its application. All those who went off to Newport and 
installed Coddington to judge with double voice took the Bible as their 
code of State. Only through the stern experience that came to them 
after they became Baptists or Quakers did they receive into their minds 
the sunlight from the despised doctrine. " They possessed not that clear 
appreciation of the great democratic principles of civil and religious 
liberty "" that was possessed by their despised brethren. In Gorton 
and Williams Church and State were distinct, but in Coddington they 
were at this time confounded.' 

This Assembly has been called the Union Assembly, for in this all 
the principal ones of Newport and Coddington's followers joined the 
chartered government; the most prominent of them, his late Elder 
Coggershall, given the office of President or Governor and each of 
most of his other leaders given place. While this effected the recon- 
ciliation of the leading ones of Coddington to the government, it was 
a disappointment to Coddington, who was in this for the third time 
left out of office. He departed for Boston. 

The penalty prescribed by Massachusetts to the ov/ners of Shawomet 
to, at the peril of their lives, venture upon any portion of it was, not- 
withstanding Parliament's orders, unrevoked; but relying upon the 
observance of the orders, some of them, now " in anticipation of the 
joys long hoped for, peace in their possessions," returned to their home. 
" Having now received our orders," August 8th, 1647, they chose a 
town council, but they were not allowed to settle down in the place. 
There were forty years more of hardships and struggles for them 
before they were left in peace. Massachusetts now assumed to dispose 
of the land at Warwick to her subjects, and granted ten thousand acres 
to settle upon, provided government over it and sent Benedict Arnold 
and other of their officers to apprehend the bodies of the owners, to 
appraise damages against them and demand satisfaction.* Upon this 
Governor Coggershall went to Warwick, and in the name of his govern- 
ment forbade the Massachusetts subjects to intermeddle; whereupon 
the Massachusetts Court resolved to again send forces against them, 
but deferred it until more should be learned from their foreign agents, 
they yet failing to observe that they had no right outside the territory 
limited to them in their patent ^ 

We have in previous pages answered the absurd accusation that 
Gorton or the people of Warwick would not have a government until 
by a charter. He was the leading organizer, and more than one-half 
of those who became the original owners or settlers of Warwick were 
members of the moflel civil government now adopted by the charter 
government, and for their active promotion of it and participation 
in it were denied the island. 

The Providence settlers composed their difficulties by arbitration, and 

Janes' Samuel Gorton, p. 60. ''John M. Mackie, 2d Ser. Soarks* Am. 

Biog.,^ V, 333. 'Armitago's Hist. Baptists, 672. Eighteen years after 

this Coddington was con\-crtcd and became a Friend and Liberalist. 
*5th Mass. Collec. % 347. '2d Winthrop, ii, 386, 390. "Staples' 



82 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

were for eight years without a judiciary." The first six men of War- 
wick had scarcely need of even their provision for " loving arbitration " 
for the setthng of their difficulties ; for but nine months were allowed 
them there; busy months in building three or four little houses before 
they were with the six of Providence carried off to Boston jail;' and 
from that time on, after they formed a government, or for more than 
thirty years thereafter, Warwick was but the camp and fort for soldiers 
and the pillage ground of the subjected Indians. The few " habitations 
were destroyed by fire and otherwise," and the few once its inhabitants 
were scattered and had no place for a government, scarcely even a 
roofed dwelling. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Gorton's return from England — He is detained by the Massachusetts government 
in Boston until after his government election is over — Coddington declared 
elected to the head of the Providence government — Providence government 
Assembly denounce the fraud, suspend Coddington, and choose and install Capt. 
Jerry Clark President of the Providence government — Coddington indicted for 
treason and his flight from the colony — Coddington offers himself and lands 
to the league of colonies — They refuse him — He offers himself and lands to 
Plymouth — Providence and Gorton party successfully oppose him — Codding- 
ton's letter to Winthrop accounting his disgrace. 

A year had passed since the last Assembly and the Commissioners of 
Portsmouth and Newport had not composed their difficulties. Codding- 
ton and his remaining adherents were trying yet to enforce the edicts 
of this court over the whole island, and left nothing unturned to destroy 
the government which had been established under the Charter.' The citi- 
zens of Portsmouth had again in town meeting expressed their independ- 
ence of the Newport men's rule over them, and ordered the clerk to re- 
announce their resolution to act in the approaching General Assembly 
separately. The feeling between them and Coddington's adherents, 

Annals. 'GammeH's Life of Williams. 2d Sparks* Am. Biog, iv, 133. 

*We omitted to state that half of the men captured by the Mass. troops had not 
seen Shawomet, but were residents of Providence ; were either taken by the 
troops at Providence as they passed through it, or at Shawomet after having fled 
there before the advancing soldiers. Cotton said: "This company was made 
up of those friends of Mr. Williams." They were members of Williams' church, 
of other churches and of no churches, whom Gorton never disturbed in their 
relirion, but to whom, as to others, he preached the fundamental truths of the 
Christian religion when they chose to listen ; which was crime sufficient, so then 
considered. " Gorton, desiring to speak his mind, fully set it forth as the mind 
of himself and his company, whereof those of Mr. Williams, his friends were no 
small part," Cotter. Nar. Club, ii, 16, 17. To Williams' addresses to Cotton, 
the declared inefficiency of such means, the branding of such methods, and 
cer<:nre of them — "There hath been no small noise of Master Gorton and hi 
friends being disciplined, or as the Papists call it, disciplined in the school ot 
the New Eng. churches. It is worth the inquiry to ask what conviction and con- 
version hath all these hostilities, caotivatings, courtines, imprisonments, chain- 
ings, banishments, etc., wrought," and "when such tjurichteoiis and most un- 
christian proceedings are exercised against them." Cotton defends proceedings 
by nccnsinrr Gorton, not only of heresy, but uniustlv of wrongfully taking the 
Indian lands. Nar. Club, iv, 226, 228. Gorton did not accept the mission to the 
Eng. government on, as his decriers stated, his sole account, as we have seen 
from the resolutions of the Aug. 9, 1645, Assembly sessions; and Winslow, in 
describing his Parliamentary services, writes : " Gorton also appearing in defense 
of Rhode Island, Providence Plantations," and his petition contained no pica for 
redress for losses nor for injuries done him or anyone, but that the Mass. magi.-- 
trates be restrained from exercising authority beyond their chartered jurisdictio:i, 
and that the rights of the natives and the natural and chartered rights of the 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 83 

which had been continually growing, now became so severe as to 
threaten the existence of the colony/ 

Gorton was upon his return voyage to the colonies relieved from his 
former long route via Manhattan by the order of the Parliament Com- 
missioners to the Massachusetts Court that " we do also require that 
you suffer the said Gorton and company to pass through any part of 
that territory which is under your jurisdiction, toward the said tract 
of land, without molestation, they demeaning themselves civilly, any 
former sentence of expulsion or otherwise notwithstanding."* His 
safety was also further provided by the Earls of Northumberland 
and Warwick, by a passport or letter from them directed to the Massa- 
chusetts Magistrates, especially commanding their obedience to the 
issued orders. Under these circumstances he had taken passage direct 
for Boston, where he arrived on May loth, 1648. This was in season 
for him to be in Providence at the opening of the nearing Assembly 
to testify in impending suits against Coddington and take part in the 
election. When he landed in Boston the Massachusetts Court was in 
session. The success achieved by Gorton in his mission made him 
the most popular and likely candidate for the Presidency of the char- 
tered government. This, together with the evidences which he possessed 
of Coddington's treason papers and colonies records, the latter sent to 
the aid of the Massachusetts agents in England, which, if laid before 
the Assembly, would render Coddington's chances of election certainly 
fatal, impelled the Massachusetts Magistrates promptly, in defiance of 
the order to them from the Parliament Commissioners and in collusion 
with Coddington who was with them in Boston, to cause Gorton's 
arrest and detention. 

The General Assembly of the Providence Plantations met on May 
i6th, 1648, the regular sessions at Providence. They at once appointed 
Rufus Barton, of Warwick, and Capt. Jeremy Clark, of Newport, as 
delegates to proceed with their protest to the Massachusetts Court 
agamst its high-handed proceedings. The Massachusetts Court, which 
was apprised of the Assembly's movements, avoided a hearing of the 
delegates and further delayed the matter by adjourning before the 
delegates* arrival.' The delegates, hearing when they reached Dedham 
that the court had adjourned, wrote to Winthrop in terms becomingly 
severe yet deferential, asking leave to wait upon him with the request 
which they had in charge. 

The Assembly resolved itself, as was the customary procedure, into 
a Court of Election and the election of State officers followed. It 
appears certain that either Capt. Clark or Gorton were the candidates 
for President of the government party. Coddington was put in nomi- 
nation by the opposing party, with the result that the latter was, 
although not present to meet the charges and evidences of disloyalty 
that were lodged with the court against him, and was not present during 
any of the Assembly's sessions, declared elected. Jeremy Clark, Roger 
Williams, William Baulston and John Smith were chosen Assistants. 

people of the Providence Plantations be regarded." The Parliament Commission- 
ers also commended the wisdom and moderation of his plea. They say "You 
may take notice that we found the petitioners' aim and desire in the result of 
It was not so much a reparation for what had passed as a settling their habita- 
tions tor the future under that government by a charter of civif incorporation, 
which was heretofore granted them by ourselves. The Narragansett Bay was 
divers years inhabited by those of Providence. Portsmouth and Newport, who ai« 
^^ >f '" *"^ complaint, and that the same is wholly without the bounds of 
the Mass. patent. Lord's and Commons' Reeds. Collects., previously cited. 
« J w- i."'^*-.^- ^•' '' 2^' Po'"^^- Town Rec. *R. I. Collec, ii, 196. 

2d Winthrop, 1, 293. 'The oath of office was not taken of or given by 



84 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Immediately upon the announcement of the result of the election, upon 
divers bills of complaint against Coddington and Baulston, their mem- 
bership of the body was suspended. They never appeared to defend 
themselves or attempt the impossible task of clearing themselves of the 
charges against them, and were never engaged nor installed in office.* 
Capt. Jeremy Clark of Newport, who was a leader of the liberal party 
upon the island, was deputed President, and he, with the other officers 
chosen and engaged, was engaged and installed in the office of President 
to serve until another one be installed ; but as none other was installed 
during that term, he only was the President for that term' and the 
third President or Governor of the Providence Plantations under the 
charter [Williams and Coggershall having been the first and second], 
or the second President since the principal Coddington followers joined 
them. It was evident that Coddington was not chosen or " elected " to 
be President, for the immediate poll of these same men showed their 
majority adverse to him and suspending him. The result of very similar 
conditions in the future reasonably assures us that they intended the 
office for Gorton at this election. In preventing Coddington's installa- 
tion and preserving the government from the perversion for which he 
was conspiring, they accomplished much, considering the crooked meth- 
ods in operation against them. John Clark was a member of this 
Assembly, an opponent of Coddington, never having since 1640 accepted 
an office under him. 

The Massachusetts Court on the 13th of the month reconsidered what 
they had done, took up the letter from the Earls which Gorton had 
presented to them, and believing " that it could be no prejudice to our 
liberty, and our Commissioners being still attending the Parliament, 
it might much have disadvantaged our cause and his expedition if the 
Earl had heard that we should have denied him so small a request " as 
to obey his or the other Parliament Commissioners' instructions, " re- 
called their former order," permitted Gorton's release by only the cast- 
ing vote of the Governor — so late that one from Boston could not reach 
Providence during the Assembly's sessions and election — and gave him 
the farcical grant of " a week's liberty to provide for his departure." 

Portsmouth secured from the May Assembly the passage of its orig- 
inal act regarding the courts, that they be organized and held in each 
town separately ; the courts of each town to be composed of six men 
of the town. These local judges were also the Commissioners or 
Representatives of their towns, and together constituted the General 
Assembly. From them each town chose an Assistant, who with the 
President composed the General Court and Senate. The island was 
freed of any plausible claims of Coddington's. The first bill of indict- 
ment, or " Presentation of the Grand Jury," that was drawn up in the 
colony was against Coddington and was presented at this session." 

Nine days after this, on May 25th, he writes to Governor Winthrop 
of Massachusetts that Capt. Partridge and Baulston and himself were 
in disgrace with the people of Providence and Warwick and Gorton's 
adherents on the island, and that he fears " Gorton will be a thorn in 
their and our sides.'" And Williams a few weeks afterwards writes 
that the colony was in the throes of " civil dissensions," the President 
Jeremy Clark as the Captain of the Providence and Gorton party in 
defense of the chartered government, and Alexander Partridge as 



them; they were never invested with authority, and were not until 1654 restored 
as members of the f^overnment. 'Callender, R. I. H. S. Collec, iv, 268. 

Foster, R. I. H. S. Collec, vii. 87. R. T. Reeds 'Ante p. R. L Rec., i. 

194, 196, 198, 202, 203, 210. 'Hutchinson's Papers, i, 253. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 85 

Captain of the Pawtuxet and Coddington party arrayed against them." 
In what appears to have been a short conflict, in which but one was 
killed but many wounded, Partridge's forces were defeated; and Cod- 
dington, after again writing to Massachusetts for help, was obliged 
to flee from the vengeance of the people and take refuge in Taunton.* 

On August 15th William Arnold wrote to the Massachusetts govern- 
ment informing them that Pomham, one of many Massachusetts subjects 
who were still maintained by Massachusetts upon the land at Warwick, 
killing the cattle, entering the homes by force and committing other acts 
of violence upon such of the owners as ventured there," had been 
warned to the court at Plymouth and appealed to Massachusetts to 
have the case tried by them, as the interpreters to the Plymouth Court 
were all of the Gorton party, and as Mr. Brown, one to try the^case, 
favored the company of Gorton and was very friendly with him. "Also 
being desirous to acquaint your worships of my fear that if there be 
not a speedier course taken the court will be deprived of jurisdiction 
in these parts by those who claim that it is under the Providence 
patent.'" He complained also of the trespass of such as returned to 
Warwick or to what he claimed were the Pawtuxans' lands, and on 
August 2ist, Massachusetts, in response to this and in defiance of the 
Parliament orders to let these people freely live " without extending 
their jurisdiction or otherwise disquieting them," again sent their offi- 
cers to Warwick to assess damages and demand redress. 

In the September following, Coddington applied, he said, " in behalf 
of our island," to the Commissioners of the United Colonies to be 
received into a perpetual league with them. The masses of the people 
of the island had not authorized him to petition for them. His was 
like Arnold's early petition " in behalf of Providence ; " it represented 
less than a dozen individuals besides himself.* The application was 
refused by the United Commissioners out of respect to the mandates 
of the Parliament Commissioners. The result of Gorton's efforts now 
saved Coddington and the island subjection to Massachusetts."* Codding- 
ton then personally presented himself at the court of Plymouth to 
subject himself and" the island to them. Here he was met by represen- 
tatives of the loyal party, Holden and Warner, both from Warwick,, 
who declaimed against Plymouth receiving him or accepting any pre- 
tended subjection of the island. "They showed," Williams says, "to 
the satisfaction of the court that it would be a violation of their 
charter,"* and Plymouth refused him. Coddington in his petition to 
Plymouth said that Portsmouth inclined to it, when it was only Baulston 
of Portsmouth, who represented only himself, that inclined to it. A 
majority of the inhabitants of Portsmouth were among those whom 
Coddington termed " Gorton's adherents on the island." Some of the 
exiles from Shawomet to Portsmouth ever remained there. Half of 
the Portsmouth Representatives to the last Assembly were in 1639 
signers and members with Gorton to the civil compact and model gov- 
ernment. Neither Coddington's nor Baulston's course were approved 
by a respectable fraction of the inhabitants of either town or the 
island. 

At this time the opposition of Codington and his supporters and his 
course with the other colonies brought the government so near to the 
verge of its existence that an arbitration of the difficulties was proposed 

"3d Mass. Collec, ix. 278, 279, 280. 4th Mass. Collec, vii, 284. " Greenes of 
Warwick." '4th Mass. Collec, vii, 284. ^Fuller's Hist. War- 

wick. Holden and Greene's Petition, 1678. 'sth Mass. Collec, i, 360. 

Wm. Arnold's letter, Aug. 15, 1648. *Hutchinson's Papers, i, 255. 

•Hutchinson's Papers, i, 256. "Williams' letter, 3d Mass. Collec, ix, 



S6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

by both the Massachusetts Court and Williams.' In a letter regarding 
this, Williams says he was bold to suggest arbitration, to which Provi- 
dence and Mr. Easton, though opposed to it, yielded, a reference for 
settlement to John Winthrop, Jr., and some other friends.' Arnold, 
in his history of Rhode Island, says that " had they submitted " a settle- 
ment of the difficulties to arbitration as proposed, " the charter would 
have been virtually annulled by the act of its holders; the schemes of 
the surrounding colonists to appropriate the rest of the State might 
have proved successful. The Providence Plantations would soon have 
been absorbed by Massachusetts and Connecticut." Happily, the War- 
wick delegatets interposed and prevented it. 

But the Ship of State had yet greater tempests to encounter. Cod- 
dington, encouraged and aided by Massachusetts, and intending by 
every means, if possible, to rule, had in the month before the Assembly 
and election provided that " financial resources for his occasions " 
should in June be at his call at Boston; and on September 13th, 1648, 
he wrote to Winthrop : " Yours conveyed by Mr. Baulston to Taunton 
received. I shall suddenly leave the island for England by the next, 
if God will, and shall be glad and ready to serve you there." On Jan- 
uary 29th a vessel sailed on which he took passage.' 

A special General Assembly was called after Coddington's departure, 
and was held at W^arwick in March, the beginning of the new year 
1649, the records of which are missing, but we learn that the President, 
Capt. Jeremy Clark, was yet upon field duty and not present at the 
opening of the sessions. Williams was solicitated to be present as 
moderator, but he did not attend; yet an act of oblivion was passed 
which he had recommended.*" The charters for the towns provided 
for in a previous act, were issued, or re-issued, at this session.' 

The many orders from Parliament upon the Massachusetts Magis- 
trates to repeal the proscriptive acts against Gorton and others were 
unheeded. Randall Holden, having business in Boston which required 
his presence there, petitioned the Massachusetts Court that the sentence 
of banishment against him might be revoked in order that he might 
personally attend to it. He was informed that an attorney could attend 
to the business as well as himself." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Assembly and election of May, 1649 — John Smith chosen President; Clark, 
Gorton, Sanford and Olney Assistants ; Williams Auditor — Deferred suits 
against Coddington — Nicholas Easton President — The government in com- 
plete order — Renewed aggressions and attempted subversion of the char- 
tered government with a view to the absorption of the Providence Plantations 
by the other colonies — Massachusetts annexes Warwick and Pawtuxet to their 
territory — Winslow resigns from the service of Massachusetts — Armed inva- 
sion of the Providence Plantations— Gorton chosen President of the Providence 
povernment — Coddington pretends to an English commission to _ govern^ 
Williams sent by the Providence government to England — The secession of the 
island — Coddington assumes its government — The passage of Gorton's Anti- 
Slavery Act the first in America — Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants pose as Prov- 
idence, Pawtuxet and Warwick Commissioners to assist Coddington — Their 
rump assemblies. 

271. *Mass. Rpc, iii, 202. "Williams' lr>tter. 3d Mass. Collec, 

ix, 27T. *3d Mass. Collec. ir, 270-28.3. '".^d Mass. Collec. 

ix, 282, 283. Tt was not as the editorial note in the printed Colony Records 
asserts, that WilHims was chosen because Coddintjton had pone to England. 
The conditions had not by Coddington doing to England been chanced. Cod- 
dington was not a member of the eo\-ernment, had been expelled. None other 
than Jeremy Clark had been installed President, and, as he was on military duty, 
Williams was sob'cited to act in his place as Moderator of the Assembly's ses- 
sions. 'R. I. Rec, i, 214. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 226. 'Mass. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 87 

On May 22d, 1649, the General Assembly and Court of Election was 
held at Warwick; Williams acted as moderator. John Smith, of War- 
wick, was chosen President. Thomas Olney of Providence, John Sand- 
ford of Portsmouth, John Clark of Newport, and Samuel Gorton of 
Warwick were chosen Assistants and were engaged. Smith and Gorton 
declined, and for this, as the law was, were fined, but they served and 
their fines were remitted. This election was a complete, though brief, 
triumph for the liberal or government party. Warrants were issued 
by the President of the colony and served by the Constable of Provi- 
dence on the Arnolds to appear at the General Court for trial.' The 
suits pending against Coddington were, on account of his absence in 
England, deferred to a later session. There was unobstructed workmg 
order in 'the government for a season; the people happily and profitably 
employed, required little legislation. A massive stone garrison house 
that had been planned by President Smith was erected by him at War- 
wick, both as a fortress and his residence.* The government, Wilhams 
says, was in complete order. The encroachments of the adjommg 
colonies were and had been for some time met by an effectual resist- 
ance, and judgments had been obtained in the courts and executions 
enforced by a number of the injured Providence and Warwick people 
against Arnold and other Pawtuxet pretended Massachusetts subjects.' 

°0n May 22d, 1650, the General Assembly and Court of Election was 
held at Newport. Nicholas Easton was elected President. William 
Fields of Providence, John Porter of Portsmouth, John Clark of New- 
port, and John Wickes of Warwick were chosen Assistants and all 
were engaged. The Assembly received peremptory orders from the 
Bay not to prosecute any suits against the men of Pawtuxet who had 
refused to pay taxes, accompanied by threats of intervention.' The 
short but a year, of peace was expelled. Supplies of powder and 
magazines and of arms proportioned to the population of the place were 
ordered established in every town of the Providence Plantations;' and 
a special convention of delegates from all the towns was called by the 
President to consider the invasion of their territory.' 

Renewed life was at this time given to the agressive movements of 
Plymouth and Massachusetts and to the dissensions which had been 
maintained by the Pawtuxans and by Coddington, by rumors of the 
latter's designs on the colony and the changes encouraging to them, which 
had taken place in England. When Coddington arrived there the King 
was beheaded, the Puritans were in power, the House of Lords and the 
Parliament Commissioners who had granted the charter to Williams 
and the petition to Gorton had been abolished by Cromwell ; the Com- 
monv;ealth declared, and the supreme power vested in a State Council; 
many things favoring Plymouth, Massachusetts and Coddington. and 
a reputed scheme of the latter to make himself life Governor of the 
island. Plymouth and Massachusetts, encouraged by these prospects, 
renewed their disputed claims to Warwick and Providence before the 
Commissioners of the United Colonies. Massachusetts passed an act 
to annex Warwick and Pawtuxet to Suffolk, one of their own counties, 
and again sent officers to bring the people there to Boston for trial.' 

On September 5th the United Commissioners met at Hartford. A 
letter to them from Winslow was read, requesting them to ^engage 
another agent in his place and declining their further service." The 

Rec, ii, 275. 'EptIv Rec. Prov.. xv. 27. *Hist. Warwick, 26a. 

•Wm. Arnold's letter, R. I. Collec. ii, 207. 212. "May. 20, 1650. 

*May 23, 1650, R. I. Rec. i, 223. 'Prov. Town Rec, June 27. 1650. 

•Mass. Rec, iii, 201. R. I. Hist. Tract, 17. p. 120. Early Reeds, of Prov. 
>*Acts Commis. United Colonies, i, 162, 163. Winslow writes: "I shall be more 
wary hereafter how I engaged in business of that nature." ist Winthrop, u. 



88 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Commissioners ordered twenty well-armed men sent into the Narra- 
gansett country/ and a company of twenty others from Massachusetts 
soon^ followed.' A letter was received by the Commissioners from 
President Easton, protesting in the name of the government of the 
Providence Plantations against the war they were waging, and declar- 
ing his government and Warwick, where Gorton lived, to be bound 
mutually to support one another.^ 

At the following October sessions of the Providence Plantations it 
was, on account of the difficulties and dangers threatening them, ordered 
to raise £200 to send Williams to England. 

The Pawtuxet claimants now, 1650, entered upon the Suffolk records 
at Boston what they called a combination agreement to a line described 
between Providence and their claimed purchase. No signatures are 
upon it, nor any certification of authority nor of adoption. It had never 
been agreed to by the town council or people of Providence, and never 
was entered upon the records of Providence. A paper purporting to 
be a copy, bearing the date of July 27, 1640, and thirty-six names, all 
written on it by a town clerk twenty-two years after, and marked 
" copied 1662" by him and found among ancient papers, has been 
printed in the Providence Early Records.* 

Coddington, on March 6th, 1650, applied to the English Council of 
State for the government of " two small islands called Aquetnet, alias 
Rhode Island, and Quinunagate," which his petition stated he had a 
right to by discovery and purchase of the Indians and had quietly 
enjoyed ever since." He stated to the council, and showed to them by 
Winslow's assertion, that they were not within the patent for Providence 
Plantations. Winslow had so stated in his petition and prayed that 
they be declared in Plymouth's. An auspicious account of these proceed- 
ings reached Coddington's friends in April, and President Easton, who 
had for four years now been a member and loyal defender of the chartered 
government, abandoned it. The Providence Plantations were not repre- 
sented in the case of Coddington before the English Council, and nothing 
having been produced by Winslow showing that the desire of Codding- 
ton should not be granted, a resolution to grant him the commission 
was by their vote, April 3d, T651, adopted. 

We do not find records of the annual May Assembly and Election, 
but it appears from other data that it was at the regular time held, and 
that Roger Williams acted in the place of the President as moderator 
of its sessions; for a letter was at this time directed by the Massachu- 
setts Court to him, again forbidding the collection of taxes from 
Arnold, Cole, Carpenter and others of the Pawtuxet party, Massachu- 
setts' pretended subjects." Samuel Gorton was chosen President. We 
do not find who were chosen Assistants. The records of the sessions 
were destroyed by the Coddington faction, and we have only such infor- 
mation regarding it as is obtained from other sources. The names of 
the President and Commissioners or Representatives appear in records 
following.' That the people should now choose Gorton to lead them 
through the present complex and future threatening difficulties, and 
that he should accept a so arduous and hazardous and unpropitious an 
undertaking, is an expression of the deep-grounded faith of the people 
in his faithfulness, zeal and steadfastness, and a monument to the 
undaunted courage of their indubitable champion. 

272, 280, ,?i8-32o. Hazard's, ii, 17S. Hutchinson's Collec, 229. 'Acts 

Corns. U. Cols., 5, 168. 'Mass. Rec, iii, 218. "Acts Corns. U. 

Cols., i. 170. *"The Lands of Rhode Island," by Sidney S. Rider, 

Providence, 91-95, etc. "Intp. Entry Book, Vol. xcii, p. 64. 

•Mass. Rec, iii, 228. *R. I. Rec, i, 235. 'Journal of the Council 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 89 

The following copy of the Council's resolution was, with a letter 
from Winslow, received by Massachusetts about the first of August: 
" Whereas, by a late Act of Parliament of October last, it is granted 
to the Council of State to have power and authority over all such 
islands and all other places in America as have been at the cost and 
settled by the people and authority of this nation, and thereon in any 
of the said islands and places to institute government and to grant 
commission or commissions to such person or persons as they shall 
think fit, and to do all just things and to use all lawful means for the 
benefit and preservation of said plantations and islands in peace and 
safety until the Parliament shall take other and fuller orders there; any 
letters patent, or other authority formerly granted or given to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, do make and constitute William Coddington to 
be Governor of the said island (Rhode Island and Conanicut Island). 
He to be assisted by counsellors not exceeding the number of six, nomi- 
nated by the people and approved by him.'" Coddington arrived upon 
the island about the first of September." 

The Commissioners of the United Colonies met September 4th at 
New Haven. They had the letter from Winslow read, and expressed 
their regrets at losing his further service." They then directed a letter 
to the island informing Coddington they were pleased that the Parlia- 
ment Council had committed the government of the island to his hands, 
and desired to receive assurance from him that those who had taken 
refuge from their jurisdiction would be delivered to them.' They 
received a letter from William Arnold containing the following : " I 
thought it my duty to give intelligence unto the much honored court 
of that which I understand is now working here in these parts, so that 
if it be the will of God an evil may be prevented before it comes to too 
great a head, viz. : Whereas Mr. Coddington have gotten a charter of 
Rhode Island and Conimacuke Island to himself,^ he have broken the 
force of their charter that went under the name of Providence, because 
he have gotten away the greater part of that colony.^ Now these com- 
pany of the Gortonists that live at Shawomout and that company of 
Providence are gathering of £200 to send Mr. Roger Williams unto the 
Parliament. They of Shawomout have given £100 already and there be 
some of Providence that have given £10 and £20 a man, to help it 
forward with speed. It is a very great pity such a company as they 
are. There may be some mischief and trouble upon the whole country 
if their project be not prevented in time, for under the pretense of 
liberty of conscience about these parties there comes to live all the scum, 
the runaways of the country. They are making haste to send Mr. 
Williams away. Some of them of Shawomout that crieth out much 
against them which putteth people to death for witches,* for say they, 
there be no witches upon earth nor devils but your own pastc»rs and 
ministers." and such as they are.'"' 

of State, Vol. 146, p. 155. 'Turners Greenes of Warwick. 

"Acts Corns. U. Colonies, i, 196-198. 'Acts Corns. U. Colonies, 1, 215, 216 

•It was believed by Coddington's followers that he had obtained a patent and 
that it invalidated the Williams' charter ; but the Providence Plantation govern- 
ment and its friends in Eng. seasonably prevented any patent or Commission 
being issued to him upon the resolution. ^Rhode and " Conimacuke " 

Islands were about one-thirty-fifth part of the territory of the colony. 
'During the ten years beginning 1645 there were seven persons put to death for 
the crime of witchcraft in I\cw Eng. Murray, i, 294. Hinton, Knapp & Choules* 
Hist. U. S., 3d Ed., i, 68. 2d Winthrop, ii, 347. 3Q8, etc. "Before 1652 there 
were thirty-six trials of accused persons and eight canital executions." " The 
Romance of Am. Colonization," 149, 150. "'The Elders, especially 

Wilson and Norton, instigated and sustained the government in its worst cruel- 
ties." Bryant's Hist. U. S., ii, 462. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 273. Ryerson's 
Loyalists of America, i, 122. "" Which last observation, I must say, 



90 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

A letter from Warwick was read complaining of the " oppressions 
and wrongs amounting to great damage since we first possessed the 
place, being forced thereby to seek to that honorable State of old 
England for relief, which did unequitably draw great charge upon us 
to the further impoverishing of our estates; and finding favor for 
redress we were willing to waive for the time [in regard to the great 
troubles and employment that then lay upon the State] all other losses, 
statute wrongs, we then underwent, so that we might be replanted in 
and upon that our purchased possessions, and enjoy them peaceably 
for time to come, without disturbance or molestation. Since our 
gracious grant from the honorable Parliament in replanting us in this 
place, we have been and daily are pressed with intolerable grievances 
to the eating up of our labors and wasting of our estates, making our 
lives, together with our wives and children, bitter and incomparable. 
Insomuch that groaning under our burdens we are constrained to make 
our addresses to that honorable Parliament and State once again to 
make our just complaint against our causeless molestors, who by them- 
selves and their agents are the only cause of this our re-uttering our 
distressed condition. May it please, therefore, this honorable Assembly 
to take notice of this our solemn intelligence given unto you as the most 
public authorized society appertaining unto and interested in the United 
Colonies whom our complaints do concern, that we are now preparing 
ourselves with all convenient speed for old England, to make our griev- 
ances known again to that State, which falls upon us by reason that 
the order of the Parliament of England concerning us hath not been 
observed nor the enjoyment of our privileges permitted to us; in that 
we have been prohibited and charged to acquit this place since the 
order of Parliament given out and knovv-n to the country; in that we 
have had warrants sent to submit us to Massachusetts Courts, and 
officers employed amongst us to that purpose; in that these barbarian 
Indians about us with the evil minded English mixed, under pretense 
of some former personal subjection to the government of Massachusetts, 
cease not to kill our cattle, offer violence to our families and vilify 
authority of Parliament vouchsafed to us; in that we arc restrained 
and have been this seven or eight years passed of common commerce 
in the country, and that only for matters of conscience.'" 

This letter from Warwick induced Massachusetts to lay before the 
United Commissioners a paper alleging that what she had done had 
been done with the Commissioners' approval. The Plymouth Commis- 
sioners in attendance declared that which the Massachusetts Magis- 
trates claimed was done by Mr. Winslow and Mr. Collyer, concerning 
the resignation to them of any of Plymouth's interests in Warwick or 
Providence, was not in the power of Mr. Winslow or Mr, Collyer to 
resign, nor of Massachusetts to receive; and that Mr. Winslow and 
Mr. Collyer had several times publicly denied that they either did or 
intended to resign any part of the jurisdiction of Plymouth to the 
Magistrates of Massachusetts. And what right or authority the govern- 
ment oi Massachusetts had to send for Samuel Gorton inhabiting so far 
out of their jurisdiction they understood not. That the Plymouth 
Commissioners did not refer "the matter to the determination of the 
rest of the Commissioners at Boston; and what authentic writings the 
Governor of Plymouth signed the Massachusetts Commissioners did 
not show. If they meant a writing signed by the Governor and some 
particular persons, the Commissioners of Plymouth cannot own it, 

has very much of a Samuel Gorton ring to it." Dr. Henry E. Turner. R. I. 
Hist. Tract, 4, pp. ^6. R. I. Rec. i. 234, 235. 'Arts Corns. U. Colonies, 

i, 217. *Acts Corns. U. C, i, 221, 222. Hazard's Hist. Collec, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 91 

having particularly and in the Court of Plymouth protested against it.' 

The Massachusetts Commissioners, remembering the order of the 
Parliament Commissioners that the bounds of a patent should be set 
out by a jury of uninterested persons, and that all inhabitants within 
the limits so set forth should fall under the government established 
by the patent, and that the resignation claimed was not with the full 
consent of the inhabitants of Warwick who pretended an interest in 
Williams' patent, and would not by any peaceable means be brought 
under the Massachusetts government, and being desirous to prevent 
inconvenience and to settle peace, resolved to relinquish the rights and 
title they had and the lands of Warwick to Plymouth, that they engage 
to administer justice therein to the inhabitants. That means be used to 
reduce Warwick to submission to the government of Plymouth. . There- 
fore, the subjected Indians and officers of Massachusetts were sent with 
all convenient speed to Plymouth's assistance.' 

The Massachusetts patent gave her three miles south of Charles river 
or the southwest point of it, and westward indefinitely on that line which 
is the present north line of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and by no 
possible construction could it be tortured to mean anything south of it. 
The grant to Plymouth gave them no right of territory west of the east 
shore of Narragansett Bay. But suppose Plymouth had grounds for 
such a claim, by what rule of law could she divest herself of any 
territory pertaining to her patent except by the surrender of it to the 
sovereign authority from which she derived it? And supposing she 
had that power, how could Massachusetts, whose existence depended 
on her patent, which expressly defined her limits and gave no power to 
expand them, pretend as in the case of Warwick and Providence, on 
the plea of voluntary subjection and release by Plymouth, and after- 
wards, as in Narragansett, on the plea of conquest, to exercise sover- 
eign power outside the limits of her patent?'" 

There was during this year another display of the intolerance of the 
Massachusetts authorities, this time against some members of the loyal 
party at Newport; the whipping on September 6th of Obadiah Holmes, 
one of the best and most respected of its inhabitants. " Upon the Lord's 
day, July 20th, at the home of one of the brethren whom they went to 
visit," in the town of Lynn, Mass., John Clark, pastor, James Crandall 
and Mr. Holmes were taken upon a warrant, brought before the 
" ordnary " and cast into prison " for drawing others aside after their 
erroneous judgment." Holmes was fined £30, Clark £20, Crandall 
£5, and on refusal to pay they were " to be well whipped." Some 
indulgent and tender-hearted friends, Clark tells us, contrary to his 
judgment, paid his fine. Thus some one paid the fine of Crandall and 
proposed to pay that of Holmes. ITolmes had earlier, while at Ply- 
mouth, been presented to the court there for holding religious meetings 
and took refuge on the island. He was a man of high character and 
importance, a member of the Newport church to which he afterward 
succeeded Clark as pastor. He would not consent to the paying of his 
fine and was whipped thirty stripes.' 

A General Assembly session of the Providence Plantations began 
on November 4th at Providence, over which Samuel Gorton presided, 
and at which Roger Williams, John Clark, Robert Williams, son of 
Roger Williams, John Wickes, John Greene, John Smith, Robert Porter 
and others, a majority of the loyal members, were present. The time 
of this session was " the most eventful era in Rhode Island history, 
and this session of the Assembly one of the most important it ever 

•Acts Corns. U. Colonies. Mass. Rec, iii, 216. "Dr. Turner in Greenes 

of Warwick Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1862, pp. 41, ^^. 'John Clark's 



92 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

held. Upon the success of its measures depended the preservation or 
dismemberment of the colony of the present State." 

It was asserted by Massachusetts and the Pawtuxet party, but it was 
not, as will see, admitted, as the editor of the printed colonial records 
states, that the Council of State's resolution had vitiated the charter. 
The leading men of the colony were present^ at this Assembly, and 
they promptly and emphatically expressed their confidence in the charter 
and government in the following resolution :' " That we do profess 
ourselves unanimously to stand imbodied and incorporated as before, 
by virtue of our charter granted unto us by the honorable State of old 
England, and thereby do according to our legal and settled order 
choose and appoint our officers, institute laws according to the consti- 
tution of the place and capacity of our present condition, prosecuting, 
acting and executing in all matters and causes for the doing of justice, 
preservation of peace and maintaining of all civil rights between man 
and man, according to the honorable authority and true intent of our 
aforesaid charter." Arnold, Baulston and Torey, leading men of the 
island, afterwards [in 1660] addressed a communication to the British 
government, in which they say " that by virtue of the charter of 1643-4 
the government of the colony has ever since been to this time main- 
tained." It is. Judge Durfee says, the same corporate body which has 
perpetuated its existence by accepting and adopting the changes in its 
constitution up to the present day.* 

The £200 voted at a former session to send Williams to England, the 
Warwick people having, as William Arnold complained, immediately 
raised the one-half, being now available, Williams was commissioned 
as the agent of the chartered government to England, to depart imme- 
diately. The majority of the people of the island and the loyal people 
of Newport, whose number there largely exceeded Coddington's 
" freemen," had selected Clark to secure the repeal of the council's 
resolution, and he sailed with Williams. 

There were good reasons, many thought, why it was advisable to have 
a new charter, among them, for more definitely locating the boundary 
lines, the present charter bounding only thus : " Northward and north- 
east on the patent of Massachusetts and southeast on Plymouth patent," 
etc. ; for a constitutionel guarantee of religious freedom, the silence 
upon religious matters observed in the present charter, giving the 
people liberty to govern themselves, although the best that could be 
secured when it was granted, not precluding religious discrimination 
being introduced under it, if the party to this obtained control of the 
government, which prospect seemed not altogether improbable; and too, 
since the Parliament Commissioners who granted the charter had been 
removed, Charles the First had been brought to the block, England 
declared a Commonwealth, and Parliament had appointed a Council of 
State for the affairs of government, a charter of later authority was 
desirable. 

Through most intense broils, during the disruption of the union by 
Coddington and the threatened invasion by Massachusetts' and Ply- 
mouth's ready and hostile forces, imperiled through intrigue, and beset 
with the lawless acts of the Arnolds and Pawtuxans, and in the midst 
of an insurrection inspired and supported by these parties and factions, 
Gorton, without the valued presence of Williams and Clark during their 
necessary absence, by his prudence, fearlessness and firmness, held the 
despoilers at bay, and well and comparatively peaceably administered 
the affairs of this young republic. Winslow was wise in his prediction 

" 111 News from N. Eng," 4th Mass. Collec. ii. 'R. I. Rec, i, 235. 

•R. I. Rec, i, 2ii. *Judge Job Durfee's Complete Works. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 93 

in 1644, when Gorton was chosen a Magistrate at Portsmouth, that the 
church magistracy had much to fear from it, but erred in his prediction 
that " full and free toleration of religion would eat out the power of 
government." Unlikely did he then think that a government would be 
established and sustained by the free suffrage of a people enjoying the 
legal right of religious freedom ; and that Gorton would be selected 
for the leading trust in it, while himself would depart to not return, 
severing his connection with the colonies. One of his last official com- 
munications was to Massachusetts during this period of emotion, to 
inform them of the English Council's pleasure that they surrender their 
patent.' " These things,"' a petition of the Massachusetts Court reads, 
" make us doubt and fear what is intended toward us." " This was," 
Palfrey says, " a time of more than common sensibility in Massachu- 
setts."" A joint effort of the colonies was now, through Massachusetts 
relinquishing her long asserted right and title in Narragansett and 
engaging to aid in enforcing the claims to it of Plymouth and others, 
resolved upon to subdue the Providence Plantations. The embarrass- 
ments of the colony and the burden or responsibility resting upon those 
to whom its affairs were entrusted increased daily. Yet through the 
storm and " over troublesome waves the little ship of State sailed during 
the year 1651, tossed by billows on every side, but still bearing a crew 
of valiant men, whose courage and wisdom was equal to the emer- 
gency."' 

The facts, contraray to the representation upon which the English 
Council's resolution was based, were quickly shown to them, convincing 
them that they had acted under misapprehensions and restraining their 
further action, for it does not appear from their journal that any 
Commission upon the order was made out to Coddington. He, after 
waiting in vain for it over a year, or until April 14th, 1652, a few da3'-s 
before Gorton's term as President of the colony expired, signed as an 
expedient and last contention, a paper acknowledging the interests 
of the original purchasers in the island, and assayed to assume its 
government. As when in earlier days a significant paper was sent to 
" the brethren at Portsmouth," this acknowledgment gained the support 
of many of the inhabitants of the island, all of whom were without land 
titles, daily fearing that they would be deprived of their possessions. 
In the acknowledgment he states that the land had since its purchase 
remained in his hands and had been a great source of trouble.* 

On May i8th the General Assembly and Court of Election of the 
Providence Plantations convened at Warwick. The President, Samuel 
Gorton, was moderator of its sessions. John Smith of Warwick was 
elected President, and Thomas Olney of Providence and Samuel Gorton 
of Warwick were chosen Assistants for the ensuing year. The island 
did not send representatives to this Assembly. 

This session passed an Act for the Emancipation of Slaves : The 
■first legislative edict of emancipation of slavery that zvas adopted in 
America. In this remarkable statute Gorton's literary style is clearly 
evident, and he was without doubt its author and principal promoter.' 

The Massachusetts Act in the " Body of Liberties " forbade the 
bondage of only those who were Massachusetts born. It did not eman- 

•Ryerson's Loyalists of America, i, 108 note. 'Palfrey's Hist. N. Etir., 

". 395 note. Winslow's Defense. 'Fuller's Hist., p. 45. *R. I. 

Rec, i, so. Coddington's Petition to Eng. Council, Ante p. 'Dr. Janes' 

"A Forgotten Founder of Our Republic," Preston & Rounds, publishers. Provi- 
dence. Stephen Hawes, in his " Chronology of Ancient and Modern History," 
p. 172. See Shepherd & Dillingham, publishers, N. Y., 1871, records that "Gorton 
and Williams in 1652 made a decree against slavery in R. Island." Gorton was 
the leader of this Assembly ; Williams was in England undoing Coddington. The 



94 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

cipate her slaves." The Massachusetts Act of 1646 was the sending 
home of a stolen negro,' and did not affect the other slaves they held. 
The Gorton Act" abolished life servitude, and it is the only legal enact- 
ment abolishing involuntary life servitude that was passed in those 
early times in any of the colonies. By its terms all slaves or bondsmen 
living in or brought into the colony were ordered to be set free within 
ten years. If taken under fourteen, they were to be set free at the age 
of twenty-four years, as the manner was with English servants. The 
man who would not let them go free, or should sell them elsewhere 
to the end that they might be enslaved to others for a longer time, 
should forfeit to the colony forty pounds. The price of a slave then 
was but twenty pounds. These early legislators were not sustained in 
their advanced humane act, for the colony did, notwithstanding it, 
tolerate life ownership or slavery very long afterwards. And one 
hundred years thereafter legislators took up the question of the emanci- 
pation of slaves just where Gorton had once placed it so long before. 

The breaking out at this time of a war between England and Holland 
interrupted the commerce between the colony and the Dutch plantations. 

William Arnold, Benedict Arnold, William Carpenter, Robert Cole, 
the Massachusetts subjected agents, and others of the Pawtuxet claim- 
ants living on lands on the outskirts of Providence and adjoining 
Warwick, claimed to live and claimed ownership both in Providence 
and Warwick, and injected themselves into the town councils of both 
places and into the colony government in support of their land schemes 
and the claims of Massachusetts and Coddington. The latter was again 
a refugee from the colony, the people having rebelled against the 
government he but a month ago attempted to organize on the island, 
and he having fled again to Boston, again taking the island records.' 

On July 29th the towns were ordered to select judicious men for a 
General Court called to transcribe letter and instructions to the colony's 
agent in England. The order is signed Samuel Gorton, Deputy Presi- 
dent.* 

The next sessions of the Assembly was on October 28th at Provi- 
dence. The President, John Smith, was moderator. They transcribed 
a letter to Williams in England encouraging him in his work of 
" unweaving such irregular devices wrought by others amongst us as 
have clothed us with so sad events as the subjecting of some amongst 
us to other jurisdictions;" in the work of "preventing the approach 
of Massachusetts and Plymouth upon us; they beginning to unite in 
one against us, such as before in some respects were separate;" and 
in the work of upholding the charter and government ; and suggesting 
that if it be the pleasure of the Council to appoint him as Governor for 
one year it would establish for the present the government until the 
question of jurisdiction and chartered rights could be settled, so the 
government be honorably put upon the place and much ^ weight for 
hereafter added in the constant and successive derogations of the 
government. It is the John Greene of Warwick, recorder, whose name 
is signed to this letter.' 

enslavinp; of cartnmed Indians was opposed by OoT-ton. R. T. Rec. 1, 70- 
Oitjrch's Indian Wars, 51. Prov. Reeds., 1676. Arnold's Hist. R. Island. 
"Force's Tract, Vol. iv. '2d Winthrop, ii, .^oo. 462. R. I. 

Rec. i, 243. 'Hildreth's Hist. U. S.. Ed. 1848, Vol. i. p. 305. 

•Early Reeds, of Prov., vi, 56. 'The Index to the Bartlett Colonial 

Records is misleadine. Under the head of Roper Williams is " Letter of John 
Greene to Roirer Williams, then in England: and "Dissatisfaction of General 
Court to certain complaints in the above letter." The Index should read: 
•• Letter from the Assembly subscribed to by John Greene, recorder, to Roper 
Williams" [R. 1. Rec, i, 249, Oct 28, 1652. John Smith, President General 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 95 

The Pawtuxet men and Massachusetts subjects, calling themselves 
Commissioners " lovingly chosen from Providence and from Warwick," 
were on hand at Providence during the Assembly's sessions, and imme- 
diately drew up a letter from Providence,* complaining that the Warwick 
people. President Smith and others in Assembly now at sessions say 
that they so " lovingly chosen " " are no lawful committees," and com- 
plaining that the letter to Williams in England about their irregular 
devices, subjecting to Massachusetts and the sad events thereof, " is a 
just cause of offense to them;" and to this letter of complaint they 
attach a copy of the letter complained of.* 

A call for a sessions of the Assembly at Warwick on December 20th 
was made by the President John Smith, accompanied with advice for 
the members to " keep in order and union till the return of our agent 
from England." Without doubt the members who attended the previous 
sessions, and who were regularly chosen at the last election, met in 
answer to the call and were presided over by President Smith. They 
maintained their order and union intact; but members of the Arnold 
and Coddington factions, unfairly chosen Commissioners, obtained the 
record books and the large part of the records of their rivals' meetings 
were removed, preserving those of themselves. According to these 
records, so kept until Williams' return and preserved with headings, 
" The General Court," etc., indicating that they were the government, 
the self-styled Commissioners of the Pawtuxet faction met, they say, 
in answer to the call of the President.' There was but one regular 
Commissioner among them. The President or Assembly never acknowl- 
edged them as Commissioners or members. It would have been a 
surrender to the Arnold and Coddington factions; but the latter sent 
word to President Sm.ith that they, being assembled according to his 
order, entreated that he would be pleased to afford them his presence; 
ordered Hugh Bewett, one of their number whom the Assembly had 
indicted for treason, to appear before them for his trial ; resolved to 
maintain their organization; again entered their protest to the letter 
the Assembly in October last sent to Williams,' and ordered President 
Smith fined for not meeting with them." They record a protest made 
by the Commissioners to their usurpations and an appeal from their 
acts received by them from the President, John Smith, and from 
Samuel Gorton. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Word from Williams from England regarding Coddington and the Council's 
resolution — That no commission to Coddington for government had ever been 
issued upon it — The English Council make an order against Coddington's 
pretensions to government and order the Providence government to care for 
the island — Coddington absents himself from the colony — The Coddington 
government maintain their organization and choose Sanford their President — 
An agreement eifected for readmitting the island to the government under 

Assembly] ; and " Dissatisfaction of Pawtuxet Party to certain complaints about 
them in the above letter." 'R. I. Rec, i, 247. 'R. I. Rec, i, 

247, 248. They claimed lands and residences on both sides of the river, and so 
claimed themselves to be Commissioners from both towns. 'Their 

Secretary was John Greene, not of Warwick, but of Narragansett. R. I. Rec, 
iiif 56, 57, "Greene Fam>ly." *R. I. Rec, i. 256. Early Pror. Rec, 

XV, 60, 65. "R. I. Rec, i, 259. 'This order is not in the 



96 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

the charter — Williams returns — Williams elected President — Williams', Holmes* 
and others' complaints to Massachusetts and to England — Leverett appointed 
agent for Massachusetts in England — Cromwell prevented from inquiring into 
the conduct of Massachusetts — The Coddington, Arnold, Pawtuxan combine 
at Newport — Their few freemen their electors — They inflating as Representa- 
tives of the whole large population of Newport, preponderate and control the 
government — Coddington returns to the island ; his subscription to the Provi- 
dence government and his destruction of the records — The choice of Gorton 
by Coddington and the Assembly as arbitrator of the difficulties besetting 
Coddington — Gorton's letters to the imprisoned Quakers — The combine at 
Newport make a Massachusetts subject Governor — The court condemns Harris, 
leader of the Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants, for treason. 

The English Council of State, upon a hearing of the true condition 
of affairs in the colony as presented to them by Williams, issued an 
order commanding the chartered government to take care of the island, 
following: 

" Gentlemen : — The Council have been informed that Mr. Coddington, 
from hence Governor of Rhode Island, hath so behaved himself as hath 
produced great matters of complaint against him now depending before 
us. The consequence thereof hath been the bringing of things there 
into great discord and extremities amongst yourselves by means whereof 
the whole colony is exposed as a prey to the Dutch, the enemies of the 
Com.monwealth, who (we are informed) have designs upon that place 
in the absence of the Governor that hath withdrawn himself. Upon 
consideration of all which we have thought it necessary for the present, 
and until further directions and order be given by the Parliament or the 
Council for settling that colony, to authorize you and do hereby author- 
ize you to take care for the peace and quiet thereof, according to such 
orders and instructions as hath been given you by virtue of any ordi- 
nances or acts of Parliament. Signed in the name and by the order 
of the Council of State appointed by authority of Parliament. 

"Whitehall, 2 October, 1652. James Harrington, President. 

" To Magistrates and Free Inhabitants of Providence Plantations." * 

William Dyre, whom Williams had taken with him, was despatched 
with the order and on February i6th he arrived with it in the Planta- 
tions ;" but instead of delivering it to the President and Commissioners 
of the government under the charter he took it to the island and sent 
word to Providence and Warwick that he had an order from the English 
Council of State for their direction." The Coddington and Arnold men, 
calling themselves the Assembly General of the Providence Plantations, 
met at Pawtuxet on the 25th of February to receive it, but it was not 
presented to them. 

On March ist (1652-3)* the Coddington-island men met at Ports- 
mouth, and the order of the Council of State was delivered into their 
speakers' hands, instead of as it should have been into the hands of 
President Smith and officers of the chartered government. Although 
a Coddington government did not exist, and he was absent from the 
former scenes of one, his adherents maintained an organization, and 
they ordered those who were governing under the charter to take their 
places w-ith them. 

Members of the Pawtuxet party, assuming to be the government, 
again on March 9th met at Pawtuxet to receive the Council's order 
from and treat with the island, but complained that they received 
neither the order nor an answer from them.* 

printed records of the Colony of Rhode Island. "Arnold's Hist. R. I., 

i, 242. 'R. I. Rec, i, 268. *R. T. Rec, i, 240, 269. 

•R. I. Rec. i, 269. "Williams' letter, R. I. Rec, i, 351. 'R. I. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 97 

The members of the Pawtuxet party, again for the third time since 
the arrival of the Council's order, met on March i8th for the purpose, 
as assumed Commissioners of the main land towns, of annexing them 
to the island organization, and to join with the latter in sending an 
agent to England to secure the withdrawal of the Council's order, and 
establish Coddington's rule over the whole colony.' The Council's order 
and with it propositions from the island men for a union were delivered 
to them by Benedict Arnold. The propositions provided that Newport 
should be the seat of government and that the Pawtuxet party should 
come there and join them. The islanders also providing for themselves 
too many of the official places, the propositions were not accepted and 
the objects of the meeting not accomplished.' 

The members of the Pawtuxet party, as an Assembly of the govern- 
ment, again on May i6th met at Providence and declared Gregorie 
Dexter, Jr., their President;* recorded the propositions Benedict Arnold 
had made to them ; " remitted " the fine President Smith " is to pay " 
for refusing to serve with them; and tabled Smith's and Gorton's — the 
President and Assistant — protests to their acts of usurpations. The 
Commissioners, members of the charter government, have no record 
we can find of a May election, although Smith or Gorton by choice or 
appointment served during the year as President. The order to them 
from the English Council of State having been withheld from them, 
they thought best to abide William's arrival, very patiently waiting while 
they watched the maneuvering factions. 

The island organization, unable to bring either the members of the 
chartered government or the members of the Pawtuxet party to the 
terms they offered them, persisted in maintaining a separate government 
on the island in spite of the English Council's order for the charter 
government " to take care of the place." 

On IMay 17th the island organization chose for their President John 
Sanford, a son-in-law of Samuel Gorton.' They passed a resolution 
that if Providence and Warwick would act with them they might choose 
the general officers. It appears from the Early Providence Records'" 
that the names of the Providence and Warwick men were either written 
to this agreement for them or that they were tricked into signing it, 
for the Sanford government immediately thereafter reconsidered regard- 
ing its officers, ordered that all the courts m all the towns act jointly 
with them, appointed Commissioners for all the towns, entered into the 
Dutch war and made some captures.' 

On June 3d members of the Pawtuxet party met at Providence.^ They 
now condemned the action of the island government, particularly blam- 
ing them for not earlier delivering the Council of State's order to them, 
on February 25th or on March 9th, when they set to receive it.' 

On August 13th they again met at Warwick, " this being their second 
session " at Warwick. They ordered a letter sent to Massachusetts by 
John Greene, their recorder, and they kept the Massachusetts Magis- 
trates posted regarding President Smith, Gorton and the other regular 
Commissioners' doings. The Massachusetts Magistrates again received 
a letter, September 5th, 1653, from William Arnold, informing them that 
Gorton and his companions were intending great matters to Cromwell, 
having a letter in their hands to which four or five of the Massachusetts 
Magistrates had subscribed, which they intended to send to England 
to be a further testimony against them.* 

Rec, i, 258, 268, 269, 270. 'R. I. Rec, i, 2q8, 262. »R. I. Rec, 

i, -264. ""vi, 65 'R. I. Rec, i, 2(53-267. »R. I. Rec, 

if 267. "R. I. Rec. i, 268, 269, *Hutchinson's Papers, i, 283. 



98 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Finally, an agreement acceptable to a majority of each — the Commis- 
sioners, members of the chartered government, and the Pawtuxet party, 
and the island party — was effected for replacing the island under tlie 
chartered government, by accepting Easton of the island as President 
of the organization under the charter until Williams' return, and staying 
the operation in towns of such laws as they had not participated in 
enacting; and on May i6th, 1654, a General Assembly of the Providence 
Plantations was held at Providence for carrying out these provisions. 
Gorton, as an Assistant, was among the members of the chartered 
government present, he heading the list of these representatives; and 
with them were Pawtuxet and Island men. Officers for all the towns 
were for the time being chosen, many of the worn champions of the 
government giving up place to secure the desired union and peace. 

The important positions held by Gorton and others of Warwick in 
the government of the colony during these years of unhappy discussions 
indicate the estimation in which they were held by the people. That 
the colony was not entirely broken up by its enemies within and without 
may be ascribed to the wisdom and prudence of a few men of the loyal 
tov/ns who firmly held the reins of government during this period." 

During August, 1654, Williams returned. He brought with him letters 
from the " Lord Protector " Cromwell confirming the charter. Clark 
remained, both to protect the colony's interests and to attend to some 
private business.* 

Williams, shortly after his return, sent the following to the Pawtuxet 
men : " Since I set the first step of an English foot in these wild parts, 
and had maintained a chargable and hazardous correspondence wit'n 
the barbarians, and spent almost five years' time with the State of 
England to keep off the rage of English against us, what have I reaped 
of the root of being the stepping stone of so many families and towns 
about us but grief and sorrow and bitterness? I have been charged 
with folly for that freedom and liberty which I have always stood for: 
I say liberty and equality both in lands and government. I have been 
blamed for parting with Mooshassuck and afterwards Pawtuxet, which 
were mine own as truly as any man's coat upon his back. I am told 
that your opposites thought on me and provided, as I may say, a sponge 
to wipe off your scores of debt in England, but that it was obstructed 
by yourselves, who rather meditated on means and new agents to be 
sent over to cross what Mr. Clark and I obtained. But, gentlemen, 
blessed be God, who faileth not, and blessed be his name for his wonder- 
ful providence, by which alone this town and colony and that great 
cause of truth and freedom of conscience hath been upheld to this day.'" 

On August 31st there was an Assembly of the government at War- 
wick. A full representation was present from all the towns, and an 
engagement for readmitting the island to the government under the 
authority of the charter was signed by all of them. They ordered a 
" Court of Election to be held upon Tuesday, ye 12th of ye next month, 
and to be kept at Warwick, which officers then chosen shall be engaged 
and stand til ye Court of Election in May next." 

A General Assembly and Court of Election was held the r2th of the 
next month and Williams was chosen President, but nearly all of the 
other ofl[ices were given to n\embers of the Island and Pawtuxet parties. 
Among the Representatives and officers were Baulston, Coggershall, 
Easton, Harris and Arnold, the latter yet a subject of Massachusetts. 

•Fuller's FTist. Warwick, 4^. Apnendix. iii'. 'R. I. Rec, ii, 78, 79- The 

following year Clnrk pu1ili«;lied his Bible Concordance and Lexicon, the fruit 
of many years' studv and Inbor, and at the time the most complete of the works 
for its purpose. 'R. I. Rec, i, 351. 'R- I- Rec, i, 2S4. "Roc, i, 287-289. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 99 

The courts of trials for the mainland towns were continued as they 
ever had been, separately; but for the Island towns Newport obtained 
the privilege of holding them jointly, which reopened upon the island 
the subject of former agitations and difficulties.* Instructions were 
sent to Clark; and the letter following, of Williams, in reply to one 
received from Vane which chided the Plantations for their dissensions, 
v/as approved, subscribed to by the clerk and sent to him : " To Sr. Henry 
Vane — Sir, Your letter was directed to all and every one of the particu- 
lar towns of this Providence Colony. From the first beginning to this 
day we reaped the sweet fruits of your constant loving kindness and 
favor toward us. Oh Sir, whence then is it that you have bent your 
bow and shot your sharp and bitter arrows now against us? Whence 
is it that you charge us with dissensions, divisions, etc.? Sir, we hunibly 
pray your gentle acceptance of our trifold answer. First, we have been 
greatly disturbed and distressed by the ambition and covetousness of 
some amongst ourselves. We were in complete order until Mr. Codding- 
ton, wanting the public self-denying spirit which you commend to us 
in your letter, procured by most untrue information a monopolie of 
part of the Colony, viz., Rhode Island to himself, and so occasioned 
our general disturbance and distractions. Secondly, Mr. Dyre by 
private contention with Mr. Coddington, being instructed to bring 
from England the letter from the Council of State for our reunion, 
he, contrary to the State's instructions and expressions, plungeth himself 
and some others in most unnecessary grief, who protest against such 
abuse. Sir, our third answer is, that we may not lay all the blame upon 
other men's backs, that possibly a sweet cup hath rendered many of 
us wanton and too active ; for v^^e have long drank of the cup of as 
great liberties as any people that we can hear of under the whole heaven. 
We have not only been long free — together with all English — from 
the iron yokes of wolfish Bishops and their Popish ceremonies — against 
whose cruel oppressions God raised up your noble spirit in Parliament — 
but we have sitten quiet and dry from the streams of blood spilt in the 
war in our native country. We have not felt the new chain of the 
Presbyterian tyrants, nor in this colony have we been consumed with 
the overzealous fire of the so-called Godly and Christian magistrates.'" 

At the May election, 1655, ^t Providence, Williams was again chosen 
President. On June 28th the Assembly convened at Portsmouth. The 
letter from Cromwell, a brief of what his Council had ordered, was 
read and recorded." Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, William Baul- 
.ston and Benedict Arnold were ordered to form and subscribe letters 
to John Clark and the Lord Protector.^ 

The following, under date of November 15th, was sent to Massachu- 
setts by Williams : " Concerning four English families at Pawtuxet, 
may it please you to remember that two controversies they have long 
under your name maintained with us to a constant obstructing of all 
order and authority amongst us. To our camplaint about our lands, 
they lately have proposed a willingness to arbitrate, but to obey his 
Highness' authority in the charter they say they dare not for your 
sakes, though they live not by your laws nor bear your common charge, 
nor ours, but evade both under color of your authority. Since it has 
pleased first the Parliament and then the Lord Admiral and Committee 
for Foreign Plantations, and since the Council of State and lastly the 
Lord Protector and his council, to continue us as a distinct colony, yes, 
and since it hath pleased yourselves by public letters and references to 
us from your public courts, to own the authority of his Highness 

"Cromwell's order 1655, Mar. 29. Ri. I. Rec, i, 316. 'R. I. Rec, i, 395- 



loo LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

amongsi us ; be pleased to consider how unsuitable it is for yourselves — 
if these families at Pawtuxet plead the truth — to be the obstruction of 
all orderly proceedings amongst us. I grieve that at this instance and 
by these ships this cry and the premises should trouble his Highness 
and his Council : For the rcosonable preventing of which is this humble 
address presented."' 

The complaints in this letter from the Assembly to John Clark and 
complaints from Obadiah Holmes and others against Massachusetts 
were presented to Cromwell ; but Capt. Leverett, who was on November 
13, 1655, appointed by Massachusetts their agent,' and who had taken 
a number of French forts in America, served in the army under Crom- 
well and enjoyed much of his favor, prevented his inquiry into the 
conduct of Massachusetts; although he admonished her and censured 
her for banishing her seducers.* 

Both the subjected Whites and the subjected Indians were still 
maintained by Massachusetts upon the lands of others, in constant 
obstruction to order and the authority of the Providence charter; and 
the General Assembly issued a warrant to bring them before the court 
to answer the complaints of the inhabitants against them. 

Forty-two was the total number of male inhabitants of Providence 
at this time. Warwick had thirty-eight, Portsmouth seventy-one, and 
Newport had ninety-six " freemen," but it had over three hundred 
inhabitants, which was over two-thirds of the population of the whole 
colony;' and a more than corresponding amount of wealth and amount 
of control in the government. By the " freemen's " act a restrictive 
elective franchise, an inheritance from Coddington's government, still 
maintained at Newport, the old leaders there, as he had done, kept 
themselves in official place, and then, by assaying to represent the whole 
and exceeding number of inhabitants, they lead in the management of 
the affairs of the colony. Coddington, who during the height of the 
commotion upon the island had been obliged to flee for safety from the 
inhabitants and remain for a time av/ay, had returned to Newport, and 
v.-as sent as a Representative to the Assembly at its March sessions. 
Objections were at once made to his sitting, but they were overruled 
" for the comfort of all parties," and as his old leaders had " inconsid- 
erately imposed the service upon him." Claims against Coddington 
for depredations of his government upon the Dutch Colonies were 
brought to the attention of the Assembly by a Council of State letter, in 
reply^to which they ordered that a letter be sent to Clark manifesting 
Coddington's subjection to the authority of the charter and acting^ to 
free him from the danger of former troubles, complaints and penalties. 
An injudicious partisan resolution was passed to destroy such portions 
of the records as were unfavorable to Coddington — that they should 
"be cut out and delivered to him." This embraced what he had 
extracted from them, and they, with those now included, covered the 
most eventful and interesting of the colony's early history, from its 
ueginning up to and including the troubles that compelled Gorton's 
despatch for England and the time of Gorton's Presidency of the colony; 
but one page with a reference to the latter having escaped their dili- 
gence; the eventful times immediately preceding and followmg the 

399. -R. T. Rec. i, ,?22-.^2i?. ^Mass. Rec, iv, Pt. i, p. 2^1 ; Com. 

dated Nov. 2.1, 1655. Hutctiinson's Papers, 272. 309, 310. Tst Winlhrop, ii, 247 
note. 'Hutchinson's Hist. Mass. National Maarazine. Dec. 1803- British 

Council of State Papers, i, 441;. Leverett was. for his success in managing the 
cause of Mass. before Cromwell, made a Major General and granted one thousand 
acres of land by Mass. upon his return to the colony. Mass. Rec, iv, Pt. 2. 
»R. I. Collec, vii, 204. "R. I. Rec, i, 332. 'Letter of Leverett ^o 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. loi 

departure of Williams and Clark for England — measures of the Assembly 
from May, 1651, to May, 1652, and most of the doings of the November 
4th, 1651, session, which was considered one of the most important in 
Rhode Island history.* Without doubt many of these records were 
unrecoverable, and on this account many of the members may have 
thought this the most feasible way of settlement. It was, however, 
decided, upon a vote to the question, that Coddington's fine about the 
records should not be returned to him. 

The Massachusetts authorities still, in 1656, extending their sover- 
eignty over the Providence Plantations, sent their Marshal General 
with his subalterns into Providence to arrest Richard Chasmore [who 
formerly acted with William Arnold of the Pawtuxans and was one of 
the persons to whom the Massachusetts warrant of May 20th, 1643, to 
seize John Greene's cattle, was directed] for. Savage says, " probably 
some crookedness in religion." While he was in the custody of the 
Massachusetts Marshal in Providence, he was with a Providence 
warrant rescued from the Massachusetts officers.' 

No reply was received from Massachusetts to the November letter 
regarding the subjected families. The depredations of the subjected 
Indians upon the people of Warwick were unabated and their lawless 
acts were encouraged by their settlement near them, on that side of 
the Pawtuxet river, of the Massachusetts agents who supplied them 
v;ith arms and powder.' Having received no reply to his letter, Williams 
wrote to Governor Endicot, who, in response to this, offered to suspend 
the act of banishment yet in force long enough for him to come to 
Boston ; and provisions were made by the town of Warwick for the 
expense of the journey; but before departing he again addressed a 
letter to the General Court of Massachusetts in which he referred at 
length to the lawlessness of the natives whom Massachusetts was sus- 
taining there, and also to the troubles occasioned by the subjected 
settlers at Pawtuxet. In this letter he said concerning Warwick: "I 
am humbly confident that all the English towns and plantations in all 
New England put together suffer not such molestation. It is so great 
and so oppressive that I have daily feared the tidings." And concern- 
ing families at Pav/tuxet who subjected themselves to Massachusetts: 
" Their obstruction is so great and constant that without your prudent 
removal of it it is impossible that either his Highness or yourselves can 
expect such satisfaction and observance from us as we desire to render."' 
The obstructions were not removed by the visit of Williams, but what 
was deemed gratifying progress was made by an agreement that the 
controversy should be closed by arbitration. 

At the next election. May 20th, 1656, Williams was chosen President. 
William Harris, now Pawtuxet leader, appeared as a Representative 
from Providence; Gorton, Holden, Wickes and Greene, and two of the 
Pawtuxet partners, one of whom was Benedict Arnold, appear as 
Representatives from Warwick. But could the latter have been seated, 
for he, a Massachusetets subject and their warrant server, represented 
only the Pawtuxans and Massachusetts and could have been chosen at 
only the Pawtuxans' meeting. He had established himself on the 
Warwick side of the Pawtuxet river as a merchant with Boston goods, 
and also as an agent for provisions and arms ; Massachusetts, proscrib- 
ing the sale of the latter goods to the Providence and Warwick people, 
directing him to sell only to the Whites and Indians who subjected 
to her and to such others as were incited against the townspeople. 
The sale of strong drink and wine to Indians was prohibited by War- 

Endicott, Hutchinson's Papers, Ji, z-j. *Mass. Rec, ii. ®R. I. Rec, 



102 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

wick, yet tlie Sachem Cutohamoke and his company obtained it there. 
Arnold had before this entertained and dealt with this Sachem, and 
there is no doubt but that he, and not the Warwick settlers as accused, 
sold this Sachem and his company their liquor." The business of the 
trials, State vs. Coddington, being called, they were upon his petition 
and on account of the commotion of the people still prevailing, continued 
to await further orders from England. Coddington had multiplied the 
lawsuits against him by getting into violent contentions with Dyre. 
In this they both signed a paper signifying their submission to an 
award of five referees, of whom Gorton was one, for the settlement 
of all difficulty between them.' 

In this year " a new occasion given by an old spirit for oppression 
arose." People of a new religion appeared on our shores, and the 
authorities in the other colonics made cause against them and cast them 
in prison. Undeterred by threatening consequences, Gorton gave them 
his active and practical sympathy, conveyeing to them the assurances 
of his Christian love in hopeful plans for their release and to provide 
a place where they might enjoy their liberty. " It does not appear," 
says Judge Staples, " that difference of opinion or religion excluded 
any from his benevolence or charity." 

Four of the early Quaker Missionaries had arrived in Boston. Before 
they landed, officers were despatched by the government to bring them 
on shore. After being examined, they were committed to prison, there 
to remain till the return of the ship that brought them, and then to be 
carried back to England. 

There is conclusive evidence that Gorton was not a Quaker. With 
the individuals imprisoned at Boston he had no personal acquaintance; 
no sectarian views or private friendship, therefore, could have induced 
him to correspond with them, yet on the i6th of September, 1656, he 
addressed them from W^arwick the following: 

" The report of your demainor with some others of the same mind 
with you formerly put in possession of the place of your present abode, 
as is represented to us, as also the errand you profess you came with 
unto these parts, hath much touched my heart ; so that I cannot with- 
hold my hand from expressing its desires after you. If God has brought 
you into these parts as instruments to open the excellences of the taber- 
nacle, wherever the cloud causeth you to abide, no doubt but this your 
improvement shall be an effectual preface to your work, to bring the 
gainsayers to naught ; which my soul waiteth for, not with respect to 
any particular man's person, but with respect to that spirit of wicked- 
ness gone out into the world to deceive and tyranize ; and in that respect 
my soul saith, O Lord, I have waited for thy salvation. But our Lord 
may please to send some of his saints unto us to speak words which 
the dead hearing they shall live. I may not trouble you further at 
this time, only if we knew that you had a mind to stay in these parts 
after your enlargement [for we hear you are to be sent back to Eng.] 
and what time the ship v/ould set sail, or could have hope the Master 
would deliver you, v.-e would endeavor to have a vessel in readiness 
when the ship goeth out of harbour to take you in and set you where 
you may enjoy your liberty."* 

Callender says that Gorton " was strenuously opposed to the doctrine 
of the Quakers."' He, however, indulged in no personal abuse of them, 
or of anyone for their differing with him in doctrine or religion. In 

i, .322, 341-345. "Wnrwick Town Orders, ante pagina. Warwick letter 

to Mass., post patina. The Lands of R. T.. 42. 41. 'Nar. Club, vi. 

Hildreth's Hist. U. S., i, 398. ^Gorton's letters to the Quakers in full in 

Staples Ed. Simp. Def., R. I. Collec, ii, introduction. 'R. I. CoUec, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 103 

the debates with tlie Friends at Newport, Providence and Warwick, 
in which WilHams, Gorton and others engaged and out of which much 
bad feehng arose from the accusations and personaHties indulged in 
by some of the debaters, the records* show that, ahhough Gorton was 
rated a disputant quite the equal of any," he was deficient in the then 
common " talent of being disagreeable to all those whose belief and 
practices differed from their own," he almost alone escaping the charge 
of having uttered unkind words against them. His Quaker friends, 
solicitous in his behalf, complain that Priest Wilson would have him 
put to death for differing with him in religion. 

Had the benevolent project of Gorton been carried out, the little 
company of Friends would have been the earliest apostles of the new 
faith on the shores of the Narragansett. In their reply they stated that 
the master of the vessel had been placed under such heavy bonds to 
set them ashore in England as to render the undertaking hopeless." 

Other admirable letters of Gorton's in defense of the Quakers fol- 
lowed. Of his above correspondence Judge Staples says : "The sentiments 
and feelings which it displays are the more to be honored and appre- 
ciated, because in his time, and in this country especially, they were 
seldom avowed." It is a high achievement to be tolerant toward others 
in matters of religion even to-day. 

Benedict Arnold had, since the May Assembly last, moved to Newport 
and become the leader of the Pawtuxans' adherents there. He was 
made President at the May, 1657, election. 

At the March, 1657-8, sessions a letter from Sr. Henry Vane was read 
and given to Mr. Gorton. Samuel Gorton and Benedict Arnold were 
ordered to draw up an answer to the request of the United Colonies, 
that the Providence colony should remove the Quakers and prohibit 
their coming into it ; to which letter the clerk should subscribe. Arnold 
and Gorton did not agree upon a letter, and both wrote one. " We 
conceive," wrote Arnold, " that their doctrines tend to very absolute 
cutting down and overturning relations and civil government among 
men if generally received. But as to the damage that may in likely- 
hood accrue to the neighbor colonies by their being here entertained, 
we conceive it will not prove so dangerous (as else it might) in regard 
to the course taken by you to send them away out of the country as 
they came among you." Arnold's conservative letter (although imput- 
ing the overturning of civil government to an acceptance of the Friends' 
doctrine) he, Arnold, subscribed to.'' Gorton's radical and character- 
istic letter the clerk subscribed to as the court directed. Gorton's letter 
reads : " Now whereas freedom of different consciences to be protected 
from enforcement was the principal ground of our charter, both with 
respect to our humble suit for it. as also to the true intent of the honor- 
able and reverend Parliament of England in granting the same to us; 
which freedom we still prize as the greatest happiness that men can 
possess in this world: Therefore we shall for the preservation of our 
civil peace and order the more seriously take notice that these people 
and any others that are here or shall come amongst us be impartially 
required, and to our uttermost constrained to perform all the duties 
requisite toward the maintainage of the right of his Highness and the 
government of that most reverend Parliament of England in the colony; 
which is most happily included under the same domain and graciously 

iv, 9. _ ^Firebrands Quenched, 232, 247. Apx. New England Judged. 

Geo. Fox Dig:Red out of His Burrows, Mather's Maemalia. Williams' letter, 
Proc. R. I. Hist. Soc, 1875-6. Mackey's Life of Samuel Gorton. 
"R. I. Hist. Pub., New Ser., iii, 210. "Nar. Club, v, Intd., 3, 4, 20, 43. 

'R. I. Rec, i, 376-378. *R. T. Rec, 378-^80. 'Arnold's Hist. 



104 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

taken into protection thereof. Humbly craving their advice and order 
how to carry ourselves in any further respect toward these people, that 
therewithall there may be no damage or infringement of that chief 
principal of our charter concerning freedom of conscience. And we 
also are so much the more encouraged to make our address unto the 
Lord Protector, his highness and government aforesaid, for that we 
understand there are or have been many of the aforesaid people suffered 
to live in England: yea, even in the heart of the nation. And thus 
with our truly thankful acknowledgement of the honorable care of the 
honorable gentlemen Commissioners of the United Colonies, for the 
peace and welfare of the whole country, as expressed in their most 
friendly letter, we shall at present take leave and rest.'" 

The doings of Harris, Pawtuxet leader, engaged much of the atten- 
tion of the Assembly during the May sessions. He with others of the 
party, the Massachusetts subjects, persisted again in the refusal to pay 
taxes, in which action they were protected by Massachusetts. He 
openly denied the obligation of obedience of himself and others to the 
government,' and made, occording to Williams' charge, " notorious 
attempts to draw all the English subjects of the colony into a traitorous 
renouncing of their allegiance and subjection." A complaint was filed 
against him which grew into a charge for high treason, and the court 
directed the Attorney General to take charge of the case. 

At the following June, 1657, sessions John Easton was made Attorney 
General, and he and John Wickes were ordered to propose to the 
Assembly the course of the Harris trial. Upon the hearing the court 
declared his conduct to be both contemptuous and seditious ;'° and the 
Assembly then directed the papers, comprising Harris' writings, the 
charge against him and his reply to be sent to Clark to lay before the 
English government ; directing Clark to command the matter in or.r 
and the Commonwealth's behalf for further judgment; and held Harris 
in the sum of £500 sterling, with his son Andrew, to perform the order 
of the court. The ship by which the papers against Harris were sent 
was lost. 

In May, 1658, Mary Gardner, a Friend, resident of Newport, wife 
of one of the Island Commissioners, and the mother of many children, 
with one babe at her breast, was, while attending a Friends' meeting 
taken bv the Massachusetts authorities to Boston before John Endicott, 
who sentenced her to be whipped with ten lashes, as well as her com- 
panion Mary Stanton who accompanied her to help bear the child. 
After their very sore journey and (according to man) hardly accom- 
plishable, through a wilderness of above sixty miles between Rhode 
Island and Boston, the whipping was bloodily executed upon their bare 
backs with a three-fold knotted whip of cords, and then they were 
continued fourteen days longer in prison. 

The further consequence to the Providence colony from the official 
presence of Massachusetts subjects had become a matter of greater 
agitation, since one of them had become the Governor; and they were 
commanded to get out from one or the other colony. Accordingly, 
during Mav and June of the year 1658. William Arnold, Benedict 
Arnold, William Carpenter and Robert^ Cole of the Pawtuxet part}', 
who had sixteen years before subjected to Massachusetts, and had so 
long escaped taxation and been the cause of much of the trouble, were 
upon their petition discharged from allegiance to that government, and 
became freemen of the government at home in which they had been 

R. I., i, 262. '"R. I. Rec, i, 364. 'William Arnold and William 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 105 

holding office.' The elder one of the Arnolds soon after complained 
to the Massachusetts Court and petitioned them for an addition to the 
payment he had received for services rendered them. In his complaint 
he stated that some of the cattle of Gorton's, which had been turned 
over to him, had been " gotten away from him and he had been put 
into very much trouble " by it ; that a number of Warwick people had 
obtained judgments against him in the colony courts and he had been 
obliged to pay at one time "£io," at another "£60," and at other times 
"great costs and damages." The Massachusetts Magistrates, moved 
by this humble petition, replied to him that as he had left the protection 
of the Massachusetts Court and their jurisdiction, and joined with the 
people of whom he complained, they judged it not equity that the court 
make him satisfaction; but that he might have liberty to reimburse 
himself by again seizing upon the persons and estates of these people. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Gorton's letters to Cromwell and to Clark defending the Quakers— Pawtuxans 
substitute fors^ed deed for that of Williams' — Deeds contirmmg the fraud- 
Papers secretly recorded in Massachusetts — Williams' declaration : Con- 
firmation of no reality. Myself, Providence and Warwick robbed —The 
Providence government applies first to the King for a new charter of govern- 
ment—The Arnold-Pawtuxans delay Clark's commission from Providence gov- 
ernment until after Winthrop, Jr., had secured the Connecticut charter of 
government— The Pawtuxans' motives— Trouble ensuing— Petition of Warwick 
men to the King— Letter to the court of Massachusetts— New charter received 
—The King's order— The Narragansett Indian grant confirmed— The death of 
ex-President Smith. 

In the Assembly, November 2d, 1658, Mr. Gorton with three others 
drew up a letter to Mr. Clark to be presented to his Highness and 
Council, in defense of the right of asylum granted to the friends by 
the government of the Providence Plantations. The letter mentioned 
the papers in the case against Harris, sent the year previous, the wreck 
of the vessel and their loss, and that new papers in the case were 
ordered which could not be gotten ready to send with this letter, but 
would be sent " by the next opportunity." It acknowledged the love for 
Mr. Clark by the colony and their further trust to his council and care. 
It then proceeds as follows: "We have now a new occasion given by 
an old spirit with respect to the colonies about us which seems to be 
offended with us because of a sort of people called by the name of 
Quakers, who are come amongst us and have raised up divers who seem 
at present to be of their spirit; whereat the colonies about us seem 
to be offended with us being the said people have their liberty amongst 
us, and entertained into our houses, or into our Assemblies ; and for the 
present we have found no just cause to charge them with the breach 
of the peace. And the offense our neighbors take against us is because 
we take not some cause against these people. Sir, this our earnest and 
present request tinco you in this matter, that as vou m^v perceive^ v-* 
our answer to th^ United Colonies, that we flee as to our refup^e in all civil 
respects to his Highness and honorable Council, ?<? not being sabiect 
to any other in matters of our civil estate ; so may it please you to have 

Carpenter petitioned. May 26. 1658, to he released and their associate? ioi"ed 
them in the petition June 1, 1658. Mass. Rec. iv, 332, 333. Book Notes, Vol. 
23, No. 22. ^'William Arnold's Petition and the Mass. Magistrates' 



io6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

an eye and care open in case our adversaries should seek to undermine 
us in our privileges granted unto us, and to plead our cause in such 
sort as zi.'e may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's 
consciences, so long as human order in point of civility is not corrupted 
or violated; whereof many of us have large experience and do judge 
it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty. And so with our hearty 
love, etc. Warwick, November 5th, 1658."' 

On February 7th, 1658-9, the Pawtuxet party, by its leaders William 
Harris and William Arnold, reinforced the evidences of the Pawtuxan 
claims by submitting to the town meeting of Providence fraudulent writ- 
ings, in what they falsely declared in the following words to be a 
genuine copy of the original Indian deed to Williams : 

" The seventh of the twelfth month, 1658-9, at our Town Court, 
William Arnold of Pawtuxet came into this present court and did 
acknowledge that these tw-o copies, to wit, of William Harris' and 
Thomas Olney's and which hath these words in them as followeth are 
the true words of that writing called the Town Evidence of Providence ; 
and that which is wanting in the now writing called the Town Evidence 
vvfhich agreeth not with those copies was torn by accident in his 
home in Pawtuxet."* 

This pretended copy of the original deed contained the forged 1639 
dated memorandum, before mentioned, and an interpolation in the torn 
portion, the whole describing more than one-half the lands in the 
present State." 

Following this came three writings obtained by Harris and partners 
from the living Sachems, by which they " confirm " the supposed acts 
of their revered deceased Chiefs Cannonicus and Miantinomi.* They 
all bear date 1659-60, one year after the fraudulent deed was shown 
in town meeting. The conspiracy was now complete. The three deeds 
" confirmed " to them the lands along the river Pawtucket and Pawtuxet 
and the land between them, and, as a matter of course, under the 
transfer of October, 1638, and the " combination " dividing line recorded 
at Boston in 1650, by which all lands west of the line v/ent to the 
Pawtuxet purchasers, all of the new lands " confirmed " by the younger 
Sachems fell to the Pawtuxet owners. Harris and his partners now 
owned eight-tenths, and their claim antedated and included John 
Greene's purchase, Gorton's purchase, and the whole territory, whether 
owned by Indians or white men, of what is now the State of Rhode 
Island, north of the present town of Exeter, a tract comprising not far 
from three hundred thousand acres.' 

From the reading of Williams' letters, printed in the Narragansett 
Club and other publications, it seems that the largest share of his time 
was employed in combiting the pawtuxet claimants' pretensions. He 
exerted himself continuously and to his very utmost against them. 
His protestations that " Harris hath robbed us," and " Both our towns 
CProvidence and Warwick) and mvself have been notoriously abused 
and robbed," and "Prodigious and wonderful to me how they can 
squeeze out a confirmation from ye surviving Sachems of what had 
no realitv no more than dreams and castles built in ye air."' and like 
protestations of Gorton, Greene and all loyal others, were for the time 

Reoly R. T. Co^^pc.. u. 2o'7-?t-?. "R. T. Rec, i. .in<;-?00. ♦Early 

Rec, iv. 70. "The T.nnds of Rhocle Tsl^nrl bv PiMney S. Rider, Prov.. 

vp. 6t-t't2. 'R. T. Rec. i. .-!>;-.?8. Stnples' Ann.nls. <t67-?6c). 

»2d R. T. Hi?t. Tr.. No. 4. Rook Notes. Vol. 22. No. 4. " T^e Forcreries con- 
rected with the OnHn^l Deed eiven to Ro(?er Willinms by the Sachems " and 
"Lands of R. Island," Sidney S. Rider. Portsmouth Rec. i. q.'?. . "Further 

condemnation of the Pawtuxans* work in Williams' letter, R. I. Hist. Tr., No. 14. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 107 

X»owerless to prevent the Pawtuxet claimants' advancement. Such 
predominance did they obtain over the Providence Council that in town 
meeting, April 27th, following the receipt of the " confirmatory " deeds, 
it was ordered that William Harris and John Sayle should levy upon 
every man of Providence what he should pay of the expense incurred 
in confirming the Pawtuxet land title.' 

At a May sessions of the Assembly a commission was ordered to be 
made out and sent to Clark in England." 

On June ist, 1660, Mrs, Dyre, the wife of William Dyre of the 
Island, was, while within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, taken 
before their court, tried and sentenced to death for thrice visiting 
Boston, she being a Quaker ; and suffered, regardless of all the mainland 
and Island people could do to prevent, and her husband's pathetic 
pleadings, the death penalty on Boston Commons. This was five days 
after Charles the Second had ascended the throne of England, but 
about five weeks before his accession to the throne was known in 
New England. 

When the August Providence Plantations Assembly convened, their 
former order to send Clark his commission had not been complied with 
and the order was repeated at this sessions. 

At the October, 1660, sessions His Majesty's Declaration was read 
and ordered proclaimed to the people. Former sessions had resolved 
to send instructions to Clark to proceed with the colony's business in 
England and to send him a commission from the government, which 
he before never had, he having gone as the agent for the loyal or 
liberal party on the Island, after the secession of the Island from the 
government led by Coddington. Notwithstanding this, the engagement 
of Clark and supplying him with his credentials had been delayed and 
was prevented by those opposed to him, by securing a committee 
com.posed entirely of themselves, to whom they had the order for 
carrying it out entrusted six Pawtuxan and the old Coddington 
party men. These, " or any fewer of them," were intrusted to write 
to Clark and to send a commission to him if they thought " it neces- 
sary."^ The placing of this business in the hands of these men and 
entirely at the discretion of themselves, or so few as one of them, 
shows to what extent the Pawtuxans and their Newport allys were in 
control and how they dominated the government. 

The committee as provided did not think it "necessary" to send 
Clark a commission. He had but too recently gone to England as their 
opponent and complainant, and had been instrumental in having them 
deposed from the Island government, and it was quite soon for him 
to plead for them the favor of office. The Assembly now again ordered 
Clark's commission sent to him, and again men of the same party, 
Benedict Arnold and William Baulston with the Recorder, were con- 
stituted the committee to draft and send it to him.^ As a consequence, 
it was witheld from Clark; and Mr. Merrick and Alderman Peck of 
London were employed as foreign agents, and the papers and a petition 
sent to them." 

The Massachusetts Court, called in October, refused to proclaim the 
new King or to address him. In November the Massachusetts Magis- 
trates received word from Leverett regarding the complaints which 
were prefered against them to the King and Council, and a General 
Court was called and an address, essaying to justify the imprisonments 
and executions complained of, was drawn up to the King on December 

'Early Rec, ii, 127. Lands of R. Island. '"R. I. Rec, i, 414 421. 

•R. I. Rec, i, 42. ^Oct. 18, 1660, R. I. Rec, i, 433. 'Williams' 



io8 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTOxN. 

19th and sent to him.* To this the King replied in a letter dated 
February 15th, 1660-1, offering them immunity from their past offenses 
and promising them the liberty which he had declared to all his subjects;' 
to which the Massachusetts Court, on August 7th, gave due considera- 
tion, enacted that His Majesty should Ic proclaimed, and drew up an 
address to him which they did not for the present send to him. On Sep- 
tember 9th, 1661, the King, having been informed that a number of the 
Quakers were imprisoned, a number of them had been executed, and 
others were in danger of undergoing the like, issued a mandamus to 
the Massachusetts government, commanding their compliance with his 
former orders, and that if there were any Quakers condemned to suffer 
death or other corporal punishments, or imprisoned and obnoxious to 
the like condemnation, to forbear to proceed any further against them; 
and to forthwith send them, whether condemned or imprisoned, over to 
England for trial.' 

This mandate was received by the Massachusetts Court in November, 
and they forthwith proceeded to declare that the necessity of preserving 
religions order and peace had rendered the enactment of laws against 
Quakers necessary, and concluded by saying, "All this notwithstanding 
their restless spirits have moved some to return and others to fill the 
royal ear of our Sovereign Lord the King with complaints against 
us, and have by their unwearied solicitations in our absence so far 
prevailed as to obtain a letter from his Majesty to forbear their corporal 
punishment or death ; although we hope and doubt not but that if his 
Majesty were rightly informed he would be far from giving them such 
favor, or weakening his authority here, so long and orderly settled. 
Yet that we may not in the least offend his Majesty this court doth 
hereby order and declare that the execution of the laws in force against 
Quakers as such, so far as they respect corporal punishment or death, 
be suspended until this court take further order.'" 

For the Massachusetts Court to send their prisoners to England 
would be to send " loud and swift witnesses " against the Massachusetts 
government. If they had no prisoners they could not send any; so they 
cunningly met the emergency by discharging the prisoners from custody ; 
and they appointed Simon Bradstreet and John Norton to proceed to 
England to present their address and declaration, to assure the King 
of their loyalty and to secure the interest of those who might have 
influence with the King and his Chancellor; but they did not depart 
until nearly three months after.' 

At the May Assembly and election of the Providence Plantations, 
William Brenton of the Island was chosen President. Although the 
employment of another agent than Clark, either alone or as an associate, 
was distasteful to the loyal party, William Brenton, Benedict Arnold, 
William Dyre, Randall Holden, John Greene, Samuel Gorton, and Roger 
Williams were put in nomination for a choice of one or two to be 
employed with Clark at the Court of Charles the Second.' In the 
direction of a new charter, Roger Williams, William Fields and Zacha- 
riah Rhodes of Providence, John Porter, John Roome and William 
Baulston of Portsmouth, Benedict Arnold, Joseph Torrey and William 

letter, R. T. Rec, i. 3<^i, ante p. *Ryerson's Loyalists of Amcr i. 132, 

T33. Mass. Rec, iv. Pt. i, pp. 440-456. "Loyalists of America by iiger- 

ton Ryerson, D. D.. LL. D., Vol. i. p. i.^S- Hutclimson's Papers, .^3, .334. or 11, 
St, 52. "Kitir's Mandamus in Hazard's Collec.,_ 11, 595 and in bewails 

Hist of the Ouakers. Reference thereto in Mass. Rec. iv, Pt. 2,_ p. 34- 
'Declaration of the Mass. Court of Nov. 27, i66t. in Mass. Rec^ iv. Pt. 2 p. 34- 
Hazard's Collec. ii, 596. "Bradstreet and Norton sailed Feb. ^o,i6bi-2 

•R. LRec, i. 442. "R. L Rec, i, 445, 446. 'Lands of R. Island, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 109 

Brenton of Newport, Samuel Gorton, John Greene and John Wickes 
of Warwick were selected as a committee to receive the old charter 
from Williams, to send it to England, to draw up an address to his 
Majesty in behalf of the colony and to give copies of it, together with 
a copy of the subjection deed of the Narragansetts to the agents em- 
ployed for the use of the colony in England.'" This was a working 
committee, the aggressive members of the loyal party having secured 

place upon it. ,,,,.,., i,-. ^ r 

The lands Potowomut had been purchased for the inhabitants of 
Warwick." Trouble regarding it ensuing, the deed was turned over 
to Benedict Arnold for the use of the colony. It was not turned over 
to the colony and fell into the hands of private owners. 

The following was sent by Gorton to the General Court of Massachu- 
setts : , , • 1 • 1 

"After our long continued patience and forbearance in lying under 
the burdens of wrongs and injuries, which you have done unto us; wait- 
ing- to see when your own ingenuity would prompt and provoke you 
to'^return unto us some responsible satisfaction; but seeing no appear- 
ance thereof, but the continuation of oppression, in withholding our 
rights in not releasing our tedious exile; in some of yours irregularly 
intruding upon our lawful liberties; and in your encouraging of the 
Indians to oppress us intolerably to this day, presuming _ upon your 
protection therein and threatening of us with your maintaining of them 
in their doings continually; and when some (out of compassion) have 
laid our wrongs open before the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
some of the chief of you, whom we spare to name, have answered with 
great zeal 'Let them alone; let the Indians destroy them. Therefore, 
think it not much that we are now at the last constrained to appear 
before you in these our lines, to present unto you our long resented 
and now resolved thoughts. Our grievances we briefly reduce into 
these four heads, which, as occasion shall serve and call for, we shall 
amplify prove and express every one in their several particulars, viz. : 

" I Your cruel and unjust seizure upon our persons and estate, by 
Capt' George Cooke, Edward Johnson and Humphrey Atherton, com- 
missioned by you with the soldiers, both English and Indians under 
their command; sent against us. His Majesty's subjects, \yho hve 
peaceably, doing harm to no man, and far out of all your jurisdiction. 
Your above said soldiers, contrary to law, in an hostile manner, broke 
open our houses, spoiling our bedding by lying on them m their trenches, 
living upon our cattle in the time of their besieging us, and driving 
away the rest of our great cattle, amounting to a great number, into 
the Massachusetts, and there disposing of them to your use; also when 
we did hang out the King's colors, to signify to whom we did adhere, 
vour soldiers shot them through and through immediately; and, con- 
trary to your Commissioners' and soldiers' agreement with us, that we 
should go with them as neighbors and freemen unto Massachusetts, to 
answer anything that could^be objected against us. which said a-rree- 
ment of ours was on purpose to save the spilling any blood, upon which 
we invited them into the house wherein we were besieged, they imme- 
diately, upon their entrance into our said house, seized upon our arms 
and persons, carrying us all away as slaves and captives, leaving our 
houses and necessaries in them to be pillaged by the Indians, who 
accordingly did destroy our goods and habitations by fire and other- 
wise; our wives and children being fled into the woods and other places 

228, 229. *R. I. CoUec, u, 224-230. *R. I. Rec, i, 448. 



no LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

for safety, but in regard of hardships sustained herein, to some of them 
it proved loss of life and to others loss of limbs. 

" 2. The second general head of our grievances is, our false imprison- 
ment for the space of one whole winter season and more, lying in chains 
and fetters of iron, and yet to work for our livings by the sentence of 
your court, or else to be starved, according to the doctrine of the chief 
of your ministers, preached for the edification of the people in the 
same season ; and when in your court privately held, you put us upon 
questions concerning our religion, thinking to ensnare us, having noth- 
ing else to object against us, telling us that we answered upon life or 
death, we told you that we could not give you your due honor in the 
place where you sat; but as you were related to the King's Majesty, 
who had committed the same unto you (though out of your jurisdiction, 
we held ourselves to stand in a neighborly relation unto you) ; and 
therefore told you that we acknowledged the King and his laws to be 
the fountain and head of your government; and that if it were so, that 
you prosecuted us to take away our lives after our goods, we did then 
humbly make our appeal to the King's Majesty for our trial, and could 
not be heard ; but not having the breach of any law against us, you put 
it to the major vote whether we should live or die; and being our lives 
escaped only two votes, as some of the deputies of the General Court 
informed us, some of you would have it put to vote again, only the 
Governor answered it was the finger of God and it was the best to let 
it pass as it was. Our imprisonment, as above said, after this was done, 
was a time which had many hours in it, wherein you had hope to get 
something against us by one means or other; but if every hour wherein 
you sought this (by our own law) answer the King's laws for such 
imprisonment it will amount to some considerable account upon your 
score. 

" 3. The third general head is, our causeless banishment and exile 
continued upon us unto this day, which is now upon the expiration of 
eighteen years; not only to the disgrace of our persons, in making us 
appear obnoxious in the eyes of men, as though we were guilty of 
some notorious crimes, but also to the depriving of us of common 
commerce amongst men, whereby we have for so long time been hin- 
dered of the benefit of the course, opportunity and state of things in 
the country, in way of trade, in regard of the places of exportation and 
importation of all commodities being amongst you, where we by your 
law may not come, upon peril of death ; and yourselves know that many 
amongst you and some nearer to our abodes, being favored and encour- 
aged by you (since the time of our unjust punishment), raised their 
estate to the sum of many thousand pounds a man, whilst we have sat 
under oppressions intolerable; having things not at the second, but at 
the third or fourth hand, for the necessary supply of our families, to 
mitigate their groans under the burdens which you have laid upon 
us, which groans have gone up. And yourselves know also that divers 
of us were in as good capacity (if not better) to have advanced our 
estates as many of those who are so increased, when Captain, Lieuten- 
ant and soldiers came first against us. when yourselves had nothing to 
do, unless you took yourselves to be the only reformers of the world, 
to bring them all to the bent of your bow, as the chief of your ministers 
have professed; that so far as you found yourselves to have the power 
of the sword, you ought to subdue all to the form of your Church and 
State. 

"4. The fourth general head of our complaint is. the great charge 
and expense you have put us unto, for the recovery and repossessing of 
our lands, which you had seized upon, as well as upon our persons 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS, m 

and estate; banishing us from them also, though under deceitful and 
ambiguous terms, taking that for granted which was not true; accord- 
ing^ to other of your dealings towards us, as evidently shall appear m 
its'' due place and season, whereupon we were necessitated, for supply 
of our present wants, to make use of our friends beyond modesty and 
all ordinary courtesy, when you had cast us out of house and harbor 
and place of abode, taking from us not only our goods of all sorts 
which were our livelihood, but our lands also; leavmg us destitute of 
any place wherein we might employ ourselves to sustain our wives 
and little ones; thinking thereby either to drive us among the Indians 
remote to our ruin, or else to the Dutch Plantation, where many of our 
English people, men, women and children, were so inhumanly massacred 
immediately before (by the barbarous Indians in those parts), which 
was one effect of your banishing them from among yourselves. In 
this case, we, being deprived of all liberty to pass through any of your 
plantations to go for England, to make known unto the King's Majesty; 
hem^ put in trust (also) with the chief Sachems about us, who earnestly 
de^^ired to submit their persons and lands unto His Majesty's protec- 
tion, seeing yourselves laying claim unto and prosecuting by the sword 
for such large dominions in these parts, perceiving that we were 
delivered out of your hands, beyond all expectation, and that we pro- 
fessed ourselves to be subjects and servants to the Great Sachem of 
Old England. We were upon this twofold occasion forced to travel 
to the Dutch plantation to take shipping, where we lay long upon 
expense before an opportunity could be had ; then transporting ourselves 
into Holland we lay long there again for a passage into England. 
When arrived, your friends and agents did what they could to hinder 
the dispatch of our business, thinking thereby to wear us out in the 
want of means to maintain ourselves; some of your chief friends, both 
in England and also of this country, being of the committee to which 
our business was referred, by which means the time was much pro- 
longed before a termination of the justice and equity of our cause. 
And yourselves know that the said committee were pleased to take 
notice (in their letter concerning the repossessing of our plantation) of 
our modesty and moderation, in that zve did not for that present time 
urge or sue for reparation of other wrongs we underzvent, because of 
the troublesome times in those days. But we were willing to stay till 
a better and more fit season offered itself; only the repossessing of our 
plantations was of present necessity; whereupon we might labor with 
our hands for the preservation of our wives and children; which they 
most willingly granted unto us, seeing that justice and equity called 
for the same. The accomplishment thereof in our loss of time, expense 
of money and arrearages, our families were forced in our absence 
(which absence was not only from our families in our voyage for 
England, but also from our lands from which you had banished us), 
v/as no small charge, for such as you had left naked of all manner of 
help, thinking thereby to tread us under foot forever, and our children 
after us, such as should never be able to use any means for any satisfac- 
tion hereafter. If the great cattle you took from us be well calculated 
according to ordinary increase for so many years, as you have the use 
and benefit of them, it will amount to a very considerable suwi, besides 
all other charge and detriment; and v/e understand that now is a tim.e 
of repairing of losses and riehting of wrongs, formerly done in our 
native country, where we doubt not our wrongs will be taken into con- 
sideration among the rest. And though yourselves would not allow 
our humble appeal to the Royalty of the late Kin?, yet we hope you 
will not hinder our humble addresses unto His Majesty that now is. 



112 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Wherefore considering the premises as things shall be explained and 
amplified according to the particulars necessarily comprised, which 
you cannot be ignorant of, and being that we respect you as gentlemen 
of the same country out of which we came, also as neighbors here in 
this remote wilderness, and respecting you as wise and understanding 
men, we are, in the truth and sincerity of our hearts (for neighborly 
peace and society in these Hie Majesty's dominions), willing to propose 
unto you judicious and serious consideration, viz. : That if, in your 
judgments, you shall be pleased to propound unto us such a plausible 
way (which may stand with His Majesty's authority and not prejudice 
nor demean our cause) for a home composure of these differences, 
unto moderate satisfaction, we shall most willingly and freely address 
ourselves thereunto. Otherwise, take knowledge, that our resolution 
is, with all convenient speed to make our humble addresses to the 
King's Majesty, in way of petition and particular declaration there- 
upon, that His Majesty will be pleased to determine the matter by his 
council, or whom His Majesty shall be pleased to appoint. We under- 
stand that yourselves have received good encouragement from His 
Majesty of late, which is our encouragement also that he will the more 
willingly take the cause into consideration. Take knowledge, therefore, 
that we do. by these presents, give you seasonable notice of our intended 
proceedings about the premises, that so you may be ready to make your 
best defense. And of this warning given unto you we keep a copy, 
testified unto by sufficient witness; it being a seasonable time now, 
fitting your opportunity, for we understand that your agent has lately 
come over out of England and is shortly to return thither again, so that 
you may give him full instructions for the management of your cause. 
This also you may be pleased to take cognizance of that if you put 
us unto the prosecution of our intended resolution, in our humble 
addresses to His Majesty, the damage which we shall charge upon 
you will amount to a very great sum, as by visible demonstrations and 
rational and undeniable calculation and account it shall appear; besides 
our false imprisonment, and wrongs done by Indians in killing our 
cattle, planting and wearing out our best land, pilfering and purloin- 
ing our goods, etc., for the space of so many years, whom we expected 
to be removed without delay. If we hear not from you speedily con- 
cerning the premises, then we take it for granted that you put us to 
the prosecution of our abovesaid resolution, and intend to give us a 
meeting in England, for the intent and purpose as aforesaid. We con- 
clude, with our desire to know of you, whether you count us free in 
point of egress and regress in any of your plantations or jurisdiction, 
to go about their or any other of our lawful employments without 
disturbance as free subjects of His Majesty in his dominions, carrying 
ourselves (as in our constant custom and practice we have done) 
according unto the rules of humanity and sobriety. And if we have 
not a speedy answer from you in this point also, we shall consider 
you hold us still as under the bondage of a causeless banishment; and 
we shall seek to accommodate ourselves elsewhere for transportation, 
to obtain redress. And so we take our leave, and remain, though poor, 
yet vour loving and peaceable neighbors. From Warwick in the Colony 
of Providence Plantations, the 22d of August, 1661."* 

The commission for Clark, which was ordered drawn out in May, 
1660, and at each subsequent sessions, was still withheld from him by 
the adverse committee who had it in charge. And its forwarding was 
still further retarded by the Assembly or Governor Rrentnn at the 
August 27th Assembly session, appointing Benedict Arnold and William 
Dyre with the Recorder Terry, another more inactive committee,* to 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 113 

take charge of and send it to him. The tactics were much the same as 
those which were by these same men made use of in 1653 to dictate 
the terms of re-union by withholding the Council's letter. 

At the May election of 1662 Benedict Arnold was chosen President. 
The General Court at two different times during the year, both sessions 
held at Warwick, addressed letters to Massachusetts to convince them 
of the justice and necessity of their resolution to preserve and defend 
the privileges of the colony and its jurisdiction "to the eastward of 
Pawcatuck river:" "Especially considering that you (Mass.) have 
by a more particular and especial instrument from your Lord's Commons 
for Foreign Plantations under his Majesty our Sovereign Lord the 
King, been absolutely prohibited from entering upon any part of this 
jurisdiction. We do promise you that we will live by you in all loving 
and quiet sort, not doubting but we shall be supported therein by the 
divine power, and in due season also, to be thereby enabled to persuade 
such as now intrude here upon us to decline their insolent proceedings. 
And we withal do declare that if any of ours at Pawcatuck or else- 
where in the colony have entered on the just rights and interests of any 
(whom you call your subjects, either English or Indians) illegally, 
that upon complaint legally made unto our Court of Justice, held in 
the name and by the authority of his Majesty in this colony, they the 
aggrieved parties shall have redress in all just and equal manner."* 

The loyal and liberal party was this year successful in electing Roger 
Williams President of the Town Council of Providence. The Pawtux- 
ans' " confirmation " deeds held by Harris were on April 4th put on 
record. On the same day the original deed to Williams of Mooshasuck 
was recorded. The Pawtuxet party had prevented this being done 
before, vowing that theirs was a correct copy."* 

On July 27th of this year a deed made on April 9th, 1662, by Samuel 
Gorton — his wife Mary joining — of Pawtuxet land, which "was passed 
from Robert Cole unto himself by a deed bearing date the loth of Jan- 
uary, 1641,'" was prevented by the Pawtuxet party from being recorded; 
their claims antedating and covering " all the lands purchased by Gorton 
and his companions.'" 

Throughout the colony and in the Assembly the selection of the 
individuals upon whom the government should, in the event of a new 
charter, devolve, was a grave matter of contention ; the government 
under the present charter now being officered principally by members 
of the Coddington and Arnold organization who were unwilling to 
yield them up to others. An assemblage made up largely of Newport 
men, and in which Benedict Arnold was named as the President, was, 
as a necessity to avoid more serious delay, acceded to by the loyal 
party. Undoubtedly, Clark would if unhampered have named an ever 
loval man to head the government, although the naming now of any 
other than the present incumbent, Arnold, for the place would have 
resulted in deposing him from office. The Pawtuxans, Arnolds and 
Coddingtons now being dictators upon the matter urged for any charter, 
agreed that Clark should proceed alone with the colony's business, 
that all the papers should be delivered to him, and the commission 
v/hich had been made out to him, but which the committee in charge yet 

*R. I. Rec, i, 469, 470, 4ot;. ''The original Williams' deed is preserved 

at Providence. A photo engravure of it and also a copy of the fraudulent copy 
^vhich the Arnold Paufuxans prepared can be had of Sidnpy S. Rider of 
Providence. Book Notes, Vol. 2. No. 4. The Lands of Rhode Island. The 
Arnold forgery was not, during the lives of both father and son. recorded. 
*Earlv Rec. Book, iii. p. 13; nrinted conv, ii. 26. ^The Forgeries, 2d. 

Ser. R. I. Hist. Tract No. 4. Sidney S. Rider. *R. T. Rec. i. aj«. Book 



114 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

detained, should be sent to him.' Yet some of the opponents of Clark, 
not having gained all they wished, refused to support the program 
adopted and persevered in acting independently and obstructing and 
longer delaying the urgently needed proceedings. 

The Massachusetts agents, Bradstreet and Norton, who went to 
England, were met in London by Clark and Holmes and by a number 
of Friends, among them John Copeland, whose mutilated ear was a 
swift witness against them of the trials and persecutions he and his 
fellows had suffered in Boston. George Fox was present at the confer- 
ence with them and questioned the agents so closely that they became 
confused." The Rhode Island men, Clark and Holmes, met these agents 
before the King and exposed the falsity of their profession of toleration 
and obedience, and challenging them to cite one single act of duty or 
loyalty in support of their profession as loyal subjects." Yet the King 
continued to Massachusetts their privileges, as they promised they 
would act with loyalty and toleration in the future; and Bradstreet 
and Norton presently returned, bearing a royal letter dated June 28th, 
1662, in which the King recognized the church and promised oblivion 
of past offenses ; but he demanded the repeal of all laws inconsistent 
with due authority, an oath of allegiance to the royal person, as for- 
merly in use, but dropped since the commencement of the late civil 
war, the administration of justice in his name; complete toleration 
for the Church of England; the repeal of the law which restricted the 
privilege of voting and tenure of office to church members, and the 
substitution of property qualifications instead; finally, the admission 
of all persons of honest lives to the sacraments of Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper.' 

The " Petition of John Clark and others of Rhode Island."' which was 
under the direction of the committee, was finally delivered to Clark 
and was presented by him to the Councillors of the King. It was for 
a confirmation of the present charter, and recited that the petitioners 
did in the year 1643 secure from the Commissioners of Plantations a 
charter of incorporation, whereby they were empowered to choose 
their own officers and to make their own laws with the limitation that 
they should be so near the laws of England as the nature of the con- 
stitution of the place would admit; and that having grounded the 
government thereon, they humbly craved they might find such grace 
in his Majesty's sight that under his wing they might not only be 
sheltered, but caused to flourish in their civil and religious concern- 
ment. And the commission, which was made out and dated October 
i8th, 1660, over two years ago, was delivered to him. It^ authorized 
him to act as the agent of the colony in perpetuating the liberties and 
boundaries and amenities of the colonv according to the true intent 
and meaning of all contained in the charter " bearing date one thousand 
six hundred and forty-three;" the old charter which those who drew 
the commission once so earnestly opposed, but under which they now 
were installed in office. 

There is not a word regarding religious liberty in this 1643 charter, 
although to be protected from enforcement was, as Gorton said, the 
principal ground for it. It provided this by granting the people full 
authority to rule themselves in a form agreed to by the greater part 
of them". This was sufficient only as long as the people's will could 
be expressed. Now constitutional prohibition of religious enforcement 

Notes, Vol. 22, No. 4. 'Rrvant's Hist, of the United States, ii, lor- 

'"Clark's 111 News from Npw FneLnnd, 4tli Ser. Mass. Collec, ii. Loyalists of 
Amer., i, 143. 'Hildrcth's Hist. U. S.. i, ch, _xiv. 453. Kinpr's letter in 

Loyalists of Amer., i, 140, and in Hazard's Collec, ii, 605. *R. L Rec, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 115 

was desired to permanently assure it. " The only safety," Gorton said, 
" was in prohibiting the Magistrates to intermeddle between God and 
the conscience of men." 

A letter and the " Address from Rhode Island to King Charles the 
Second '" was sent to Clark by the select men ; the address setting forth 
" that it was much on their hearts if they might be permitted to hold 
forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing State might stand 
and best be maintained with a full liberty in religious concernment; 
craving to receive from his Majesty a more absolute, ample and free 
charter of civil incorporation, while permitted with freedom of con- 
science to worship the Lord our God." 

While Clark was delayed by the withholding of his credentials, 
John Winthrop, Jr., v/as engaged in advancing the passage of a 
charter for Connecticut, which described that colony's bounds as east 
upon the Narragansett river.* The draught of this charter thus preced- 
ing that of the Rhode Island charter came finally before the Council 
board before the objectional portion was revealed to Clark, and he 
could not at this stage combat it. Winthrop says : " Mr. Clark might 
have done their business before my arrival, or all the time since. I 
should not have offered anything therein. Why he did not act about 
their business before, when he would have none to oppose, or all the 
time when he should have no opposition from myself or any other, I 
know not the reason. I had not the least intention of v/ronging them." 

The Providence and Rhode Island grant was to Patatticuck river, 
at that time also called Narragansett river. The Council explained 
that they did not intend to grant away from it any of its territory. 
Winthrop agreed with Clark upon the terms " Patatticuck river called 
Narragansett river," and this line of division was, not however without 
many years of troublesome and expensive trials for both colonies, 
sustained by the King's Commissioners." 

Benedict Arnold was for the year 1663 elected President of the 
colony, and five of the six Providence Representatives chosen were 
also of the Pawtuxet party. The Pawtuxet party also obtained a two- 
thirds majority in the Providence Town Council; and again ordered 
that no land should be granted within the Pawtuxet claim. A struggle 
in the Assembly and local courts, led by Harris, for the possession of 
the lands they claimed, followed; Harris, by electing controlling majori- 
ties in the Town Council and General Assembly, attempting politically 
to accomplish his object.' Although but four men held eigfat of the 
ten shares in this claim to nearly the whole State, it is not suprising 
that these few bhould have so large a following; for the land, the stake 
for which they played, was of such monstrous financial value that 
their success would insure the dispensing of rich bounties to their 
friends.* 

At a General Assembly held at Newport on November 24th, 1663, 
the new charter from Charles the Second, brought over by Capt. Baxter, 
v/as read. The earnest struggles for religious liberty had, in the con- 
stitutional prohibition of the exercise of civil authority over men's 
consciences, gained the final victory. It limited the power of civil 
government to civil things. The charter recites from the Committee 

i, 485. 'R. I. Rec, i, 489-491- *R- I- Collec, iii, 190-213. 

"Mass. Archives. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 380. 'The use in the Conn. 

charter of the name Narragansett instead of Patatticuck for the boundary river 
was doubtless the work of Harris, who had been made the paid agent for the 
Prov. government and also for Conn. Had the contention of Conn, under it 
been sustained, the Narragansett lands claimed by the Pawtuxans would have 
been awarded to them. '2d R. I. Hist. Tract, 4, p. 80. ^Lands 



'ii6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

of Select Men's Address to the King " That it is much in their hearts 
if they may be permitted to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most 
flourishing civil state may stand and best be tnaintained zvith a full 
liberty in religious concernment/'^ 

All the rights granted in the earlier charter were confirmed in this, 
the original right and title of the Indians and their concession of the 
Narragansett territory through Gorton to the English government for 
the government of the Providence Plantations was recognized and 
confirmed. The names of the men from the different parties, upon 
whom the government under the new charter should devolve until the 
next May election, as had been agreed upon and sent to Clark, were 
inserted in the charter; but those who had borne the chief burdens and 
sacrifices in the cause did not receive the chief honors. The Newport 
organization and the Pawtuxans were nov/ in a majority sufficient to 
command for themselves most of the prominent places. The Governor 
named, therefore, was not Williams or a representative of the liberal 
party,'" but Benedict Arnold, and he became by this appointment the 
first Governor under the new charter;* largely attributive to the limited 
voting privilege maintained in Newport. Arnold and Brenton held 
the office of Governor for fifteen years between them continuously, and 
they with Easton and later Coddington continuously for twenty-one 
years (with the exception of one year) until the death of all of them.* 

The name " Providence Plantations " in the William.s charter, Gorton 
said, disturbed the men of Newport. In the new charter Rhode Island 
was prefixed to the name of the colony. Gorton, one of the few of the 
liberal party who obtained recognition under the new charter, was 
named in it as -one on whom the government should devolve, was a 
member of the Assembly that received the charter, and was a member 
of the next Assembly in March, in which the new charter was adopted. 
Under the new charter the Governor, the Deputy Governor, and four 
of the ten Assistants were Newport men, and of the Deputies Newport 
had six to four from any other town.* The preponderating population 
of Newport was from Massachusetts ; it was nearly a Massachusetts 
government. The political consequences of the other towns than New- 
port were thus destroyed, and the government, though with constitu- 
tional liberty established in it, passed from the hands of those whose 
early struggles founded and maintained it. These thereafter " shared 
but few favors and seldom secured any official recognition or distinc- 
tion." 

Most of the early officers of the government, like Gorton, as he says, 
" never persued earthly honor." Conscience and duty actuated them 
in taking upon themselves the dangerous responsibilities that confronted 
them; and sacrifice and suffering without honor in their day was their 
earthly portion. The infirmities of age and long continued public 
service, as at last pled by Gorton, were the only laudable reasons for 
laying down this unthankful work. Except in the cases of Arnold 

of R. Island, loi, io6, 255. "R. I. Rec, ii, 4, 5. "R. I. Collec, 

vii, 204. 'Arnold was chosen Chief-officer before the new charter 

arrived. To name or not to name him as Governor in the charter was one of 
the obstructions in proceedings. To not have so named him at this time would 
have deposed him from the office. *.\rnold and Coddington, through 

their extensive land acquisitions and political favors, and the favors of commerce 
extended to them by Mass., became possessed of large wealth, exceeding that of 
any other two men in the colony. Coddington, in 1665, abandoned the church 
and Puritan party and became a Friend and Loyalist, and was thereafter the 
Governor of the colony and a commendable citizen. 5th Mass. Collec, i, 330 
note. 2d Savage's Winthrop, ii, 179. R. I. Collec, ii, 52. Mass. Rec. ii, 48. 
»R. I. Rec, ii, 39. *R. I. Rec, i, 515-517. "Dr. Cathcart. The 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 117 

and Coddington, there was hardly an example of personal ambitious 
strife for place in the colony until after the government was established 
very secure and its offices were provided with emoluments. Samuel 
Gorton and John Smith served as Presidents of the colony during the 
culminating period of the attempted subversion of its government and 
the transferring of its dominions to the other colonies, the most trying 
period, and met with judgment and courage every emergency; pre- 
served the valued rights by their charter granted to them, and happily 
lived to see the cause for which they labored triumph. 

The nev/ charter also contained the express provision that the inhabit- 
ants of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations should have perfect 
freedom to pass and repass without let or molestation into the other 
colonies, and to hold intercourse with such of their people as were 
willing, " any act, clause, or sentence in any of the said colonies pro- 
vided or that shall be provided to the contrary notwithstanding." 
Accompanying the charter was an open letter from the King to the 
Governor and Council of Massachusetts, expressly calling their atten- 
tion to the signification of his will as provided in his charter, and 
requiring their obedience, which letter he sent through the hands of 
the Governor and Council of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
evidently to assure to all the parties interested a knowledge of its tender 
and his will. Its receipt was, by the Governor and Council of Massachu- 
setts on November i8th, 1663, acknowledged." 

A remarkable fact regarding this charter is that it was so liberal in 
its provisions that it was not changed by the revolution, but remained 
in force until 1842. It was in advance of other instruments in provid- 
ing protection in the matter of religious worship. When, later, the 
Liberalists complained of this deficiency in the United States Consti- 
tution and addressed Washington upon the subject, urging an amend- 
ment, the request commended itself to his judgment and he replied that 
had he known the needed protection was not accorded fully in the Con- 
stitution he never would have signed it. The amedment was introduced 
by Madison and, in spite of violent opposition at the first, Congress 
passed it." 

That Charles the Second should favor the experiment of civil govern- 
ment with liberty of conscience .and provide for the enforcement of 
religious freedom, first in this banished colony, is largely due to the 
exemplary life, earnest entreaties and convincing eloquence of Gorton, 
Clark and Williams. His letters* show that he was well disposed to 
grant them this favor.' He had pledged " that no man shall be dis- 
quieted or called in question for difference of opinion in matters of 
religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom," in his famous 
declaration from Breda in 1660.* In his letter to Endicott the same 
year he says: "Neither shall we forget to make you and all our good 
people in those parts equal partakers of those promises of liberty and 
moderation to tender consciences expressed in our gracious declaration." 
And the identical language of his declaration from Breda (with the 
selectmen's entreaty to him " to hold forth a lively experiment, with 
a full liberty in religious concernment ") was inserted in the new charter 

R. I. and Prov. Plantation was the first, or the second if we grant the first to 
the colony of North Carolina, to declare itself " free from all dependence on 
the crown of Great Britain." This she did May 4, 1776. She then refused to 
enter the Compact of United Colonies until constitutional religious_ freedom 
was adopted. ^King's letters in Ryerson's Loyalists of America. 

'Williams' letter, R. I. Collec. iii, 163. R. I. Rec, i, 459. Warwick letter. R. I. 
Rec, ii, 79- *Rapin, 2d London Ed., ii, 6t6. Echard, 3d London Ed., 

the Commonwealth Book, iii, 761-763. 'Charter in R. I. Rec, ii, 5. 



;!8 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

by his special order, and by him defended in open court before it was 
sealed and he signed it." 

By enforcing freedom in the American colonies the promotion of 
the Episcopal religion was accomplished; but, however, its operation 
here was most desirable and beneficial. Massachusetts was offered a 
new charter on the same terms as Narragansett and refused it. Then 
her charier fell. This was the last effective act of Charles the Second 
relative to Massachusetts, for before a new government could be settled 
the Monarch died. His death and that of the charter were nearly 
contemporary." James the Second, immediately upon his accession to 
the throne, in resentment of the disobedience and belligerancy of Massa- 
chusetts and indignant less with the Narragansett than with the Massa- 
chusetts heretics, appointed a Royal Governor and a Royal Commission 
which changed, for the time being, the whole face of New England.' 

We passed with but a mention one of the proceedings of the last 
Assembly, v.hich v/as attended with much importance. The Indian 
Kings of the Narragansett nation were by invitation of the Governor 
and Council present. The deed and submission sent by them to his 
Majesty by Mr. Gorton was read to them, which they reaffirmed and 
owned to have executed. This submission deed of the Narragansetts 
secured by Gorton well stood all the ridicule that Massachusetts writers 
could bestow upon it. No instrument ever more fully than this served 
its chief purpose. Massachusetts had commissioned Arnold and others 
to secure this same thing, but failed in it, and subjected but two of the 
petty Sachems.* The submission of the Narragansett Chiefs with their 
dominion in the interests of the Providence Plantations befv.r':; others 
had seduced them, which latter would have facilitated the efforts of 
Weld to secure Massachusetts a patent and of Winslow to call in the 
grant to Williams, was a master policy; notwithstanding England was 
unable to return to the Narragansetts, for the deed the redress and 
protection which was due for it. And although Miantinomi fell in 
death, doubtless earlier than he would have fallen had be submitted to 
Massachusetts, the same fate awaited those who did submit to Massa- 
chusetts after their land had been gotten from them.^ 

This Indian grant was recognized as the highest authority by the 
Parliament Commissioners, and in the charter as the best of all grants; 
so all-sufficient as to supercede all others; and the grant in the body of 
the charter is, therefore, given to the Rhode Island and Providence 
colony of dominion over this land.* 

Without this deed the colony could not have retained any considerable 
part of the Narragansett domain; and the importance attached to it 
by all the colonies is evident from what we have recounted. It was 
bv virtue of this act that the King's Commissioners sitting at Warwick 
erected it into the King's Province, named its bounds, and gave to the 
Governor and his Assistants of the colonv of Rhode^ Island and Provi- 
dence its entire control, forbidding others trespassing upon it. The 
charter says that as the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations " are 
seized and possessed by purchase and consent of the natives to^ their 
full consent, and they having by near neighborhood to and friendly 

Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, cTi. v. '"T^arry's^ Hist. Mass.. First 

Period, xvii, 478. 'Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, ch. vi. 

*Acts Coms. U. Cols., i, .■jz, etc. 'Canonchet, the son and successor to 

the Chiefdom of Miantinomi, when captured was offered his life if he would 
secure the submission of his Tribe, which refusin°f, he was killed and quartered. 
The Tribes that did submit. .-ir>d the petty Sncb'-ms whom Arnold induced to 
submit, were afterwards killed. Hubbard's Indian Wars, etc *Col. 

Aspinwall, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, i860, pp. 39-41 ; 1862, pp. 41, 77, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 119 

society with the great body of the Narragansett Indians given them 
encouragement, of their own act to subject themselves, their people 
and lands unto us, it shall not be lawful for the rest of the colonies to 
invade or molest the native Indians or any other inhabitants within the 
land and limits mentioned, they having subjected themselves unto us 
and being by us taken into our special protection, without the knowl- 
edge and consent of the Governor and company of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations,"^ 

Shortly prior to March, 1664, the death occurred of John Smith, 
former President of the colony. Pie was an early settler in Providence, 
a subject of the vengeance of the church Magistrates of Massachusetts, 
and prior to 1648 permanently settled at Warwick ; was one of the first 
members of the government under the charter and one of its most 
earnest defenders. He served the colony loyally and faithfully in 
various ways, and as President during very troublesome times and to 
him a most trying period. Happily, he lived to see religious freedom 
secured to the colony in its constitution. The town of Warwick 
appointed Gorton administrator of his estate. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Assembly under the new charter — Gorton named in it as one of the incorpo- 
rators — A Representative — Change of name from Providence to Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations — The King appoints Commissioners to settle the 
disputes of the colonies — Instructs them to see if the Narragansetts' sub- 
mission and cession secured by Gorton prove true — -They confirm the Narragan- 
sett submission and cession — Gorton names the unsetled territory the King's 
Province — Samuel Gorton, Jr., appointed a magistrate in it — Commissioners 
declare all claims of the other colonies to lands within it to be void, and place 
it in the Rhode Island and Providence government's keeping — They order the 
removal of Massachusetts subjects from it — Massachusetts court refuses to 
heed the orders of the King's Commissioners — The King commands the Gov- 
ernor and Council of Massachusetts to send representatives to answer in 
England. 

The first Assembly of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
under the new charter sat at Newport March ist, 1664. Samuel Gorton 
was, as we have stated, named in it as one of the incorporators of the 
government, so also were Benedict Arnold, William Coddington and 
William Baulston. The appointments named in it were Arnold, Gov- 
ernor; Brenton, Deputy Governor; Coggershall, Clark and Baker, 
Assistants, all of Newport; Baulston and Porter, Assistants, of Ports- 
mouth; Field, Olney and Williams, Assistants, of Providence; and Greene 
and Smith, Assistants, of Warwick. The vacancv occasioned by the 
death of Smith was filled by the choice of Randall Holden. The Assem- 
bly appointed the Superior Court at Newport semi-annually to be held 
by the Governor and six of the Assistants with or without the aid ox 
the Deputy Governor. Five of twelve colony officers were required to 
be citizens of Newport. The Governor, Deputy Governor and three of 
the Assistant justices, thereafter of Newport, and five out of each 

'R. I. Rec, ii, 4, 15, King's letter. Letters from the colony to the King and 
Lord Clarendon, Sept. 4, 1666, R. I. Rec, ii, i^s, 156, 556, 562; iii. 40, 61, 62, 
63, etc.; iv, 370-373- King's letter, ist Mass. Collec. v. 221: 2d. Mass. Collec. 
vu, 98-112; Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 315. -!i6. Sheffield's Paper. National 
Magazine, 62. «R. L Rec. Book Notes, xix, 19, p. 70. 



120 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

twelve of the grand and petit jury were to be Newport men. Every 
town was deprived of the power of electing one-half of its council, the 
election of half given to the vote of the whole colony.* Newport had 
surpassed the other towns in population, wealth and social influence ; 
had now a more than corresponding political interest, and filled most 
of the offices of the government. Its accessions vv^ere of a character 
very different from those of the early settlements, which were of a 
people many of whom, after having been impoverished by fines and 
penalties, had escaped almost penniless to enjoy in the wilderness the 
scant returns of labor and the hoped for large reward of freedom from 
religious oppression. Its accessions were largely Puritan men of wealth 
.who came to the new port of enterprise for business. This Puritciu 
element was made by the rulers the privileged electorate, thereby keep- 
ing them in power. Without regard for or sympathy with the liberal 
element it held controlling influence in the colony for more than a 
century.^ 

The change in the official title of the colony, dictated by the Newport 
island men and made by prefixing the name of the island to it, led to 
the colony being called by the island's name; and it also loaned strength 
to the error, encouraged by the followers of Coddington then in power 
in the government, that prevailed for many years, that the government 
of the colony had its origin in his government on the island. The 
name of the State should be Narragansett. 

Those governing at Newport from the beginning felt but little interest 
in the mainland towns to which they had against their will been united" 
Previous to Clark's return from England the colony had paid him the 
amount agreed upon for his services and also sent to him an extra 
allowance for his greater encouragement in its behalf, Gorton being 
one who guaranteed the amount apportioned to his town.^ Upon 
Clark's return the Assembly promptly assumed the debt which was 
contracted in 1651 for his departure, and to this added a gratuity and 
assessed £600 upon the towns for it, £80 of it being assigned as War- 
wick's portion. To this Warwick for good reasons objected. The main- 
land had alone paid the expenses of Williams, the government agent, 
and it belonged to the island alone to pay the departure expenses of 
Clark their agent.'" Clark had but recently, during the coming in of 
the King, been employed by the government,' and for this all his 
expenses and claims had been paid with an extra allowance. The 
Warwick people had, Williams said, been for the past twenty years 
subjected to a loss of £100 annually. Holden said in all £4,000 from 
the depredations of those who had betrayed the government, without any 
relief from the government;' and they rightly thought that the island 
should pay Clark's departure expenses, and if a further payment to him 
by the government was deemed just it should be assessed upon those 
who had betrayed the government and proudly done wrong of a higher 
nature. , 

Others joined with Warwick in the protest to the Newport mens 
proceedings, but it was unheeded, and in October (1664) the arrearage, 
now £200. was ordered to be collected from the different towns. Unwar- 
rantable reflections having been cast upon the patriotism of the Warwick 
people, they in the December following addressed a letter to the 
Assembly then in session which vindicated their unrivalled interest 
in the colony and the justice of the course they would recommend, 

*Judge Dnrfee's address, 1847. *R. I- Collec, vii, 211. 'R. I. 

Rec, i, 4801482, Sio; ii, 77. 478, 479- SM, 515, 558; iii, 22. ' R. I. Rec, 

ii, 78-80. *R. I. Rec, ii. 515, SS8. ^- T- Rec. 1, 341-345: 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 121 

stating that they almost alone bore the expense of the first mission, 
that of Gorton, Greene and Holden to England to sustain the colony, 
and had done none less for it than any others had done, and this done 
on their own charge, travel and loss of time, never receiving a penny 
from any of the other towns; that when the men of Massachusetts had 
drafted a charter for Narragansett, during the height of their credit 
in England, and had both ministers and Magistrates pleading that it 
might be made authentic, these Warwick men only prevented it.* War- 
wick, however, paid the amount that had been assessed to her without 
abatement; and at an Assembly at Warwick, June 21st, 1670, ordered 
£300 to be raised to send Clark and Greene to England to now oppose 
the claims Connecticut made by the precedence of her new charter 
with bounds including, as they thought, portions of the Providence 
colony. Clark did not go, his death occurring soon after.* 

The King finding it impossible to secure compliance and necessary 
to compose the differences of which he received complaints, and to do 
justice to numerous demands at his royal hands, on the 22d of April, 
1664, appointed Col, Richard Nichols, Sr. Robert Carr, Knight, George 
Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Meverick, Commissioners to visit the 
colonies in New England to examine and determine all complaints and 
appeals in all causes and matters, as well military and criminal, and he 
sent under date of April 23d, 1664 letters to both the Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island governments " acknowledging his duty to see that 
justice be administered to all his subjects."" 

The King's letter of June 28, 1662, brought over by Bradstreet and 
Norton, nearly two years past, remained unpublished, but now upon 
the appointment of the royal Commissioners was made public and 
several other letters from the King acknowledged,* with a protest 
against the royal Commissioners in what they term a " supplication " to 
the King, dated October 25th, 1664.' It was replied to by the King on 
February 25th, 1664-5. The letters of the King of February 15th, 1660, 
September 9th, 1661, June 28th, 1662, April 23d, 1664, and February 
25th, 1665, show the groundlessness of the Massachusetts Magistrates' 
statements and reveal what they contended for under the rights of 
conscience was the right of preventing others, and what they claimed 
under the pretense of charter rights was absolutism, refusing to submit 
even to inquiry as to whether they had encroached upon the rights and 
territories of their White and Indian neighbors, or made laws and 
regulations and performed acts contrary to the laws of England, and 
to the rights of others of the King's subjects. The King's letter of 
February 25th, 1664-5, i^i answer to the supplication is not given by 
Hutchinson in his history. This and a letter from Lord Clarendon in 
answer to a copy of the supplication that was sent to him, and a letter 
from Robert Boyle in reply to a letter sent to him, and upon the subject 
of this address to the King and their rejection of the royal commission, 
may be read with advantage to those who would pursue this subject 
further.* 

In January, 1664-5, the Commissioners appointed by the King arrived. 

iii, 58-62. _ 'R. I. Rec, ii, 78-80, 127. *.An error in the printed 

records assigms this sessions to Newport ; but from the minutes of the Governor 
and Magistrates of Newport, held the Friday previous ?nd hat held the Oct. 
fnllowinp, it is evident the place was Warwick. "Kind's letter. Hazard's 

Hist. Collec., ii, 6341637. Ref. to in Loyalists of Amer., i, 176. "zd Mass. 

Collec., viii, 47. 'Supplication in Mass. Rec, iv, Pt. ii, 129-133. and in 

Loyalists of Amer., i, 153-150. ^King's letter of Feb. 35. 1664-1; in 

Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, 166-169, and in Hutchinson's Collec. of State 
Papers, 390. or ii.iis. Lord Clarendon's letter in Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., 
*> 544. and in Loyaliss of Amer., i, 160. Robert Boyle's letter in 2d Mass. Collec., 



122 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

They were well received by the people of the Providence and Rhode 
Island Plantations. The Indian Princes gave them a long petition. 
Among their complaints of injustice was that the Massachusetts Com- 
missioners had first caused them to be fined, then took their country in 
mortgage to satisfy the sentence, and would inveigle them out of it.' 

One of the King's most implicit instructions to his Commissioners 
was " to see if it prove true " that the Narragansetts had submitted 
their domain to Charles the First of their will; and accordingly their 
first business in Narragansett was to visit the headquarters of the tribe 
at Pattamsquscot, where a council with them was held and the sub- 
mission of the Narragansett Chiefs were confirmed; whereupon the 
Commissioners then, there on the 20th of March, 1664-5, formally 
received the grant, commanded it to be called by the name Gorton 
applied to it, " The King's Province," and commissioned men of the 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, their Governor and Assist- 
ants its Magistrates and rulers.'" We do not find Samuel Gorton 
named as one of these Magistrates. Lie was now seventy-three years 
of age, and had on account of the infirmities of age refused to longer 
serve in the office of Assistant, although he was Magistrate at Warwick 
and did serve as Assistant in the place of absent ones ; and so doubtless 
served as his son did and with him as Magistrate for the King's 
Province. Llis interest in the grant may have prevented his appoint- 
ment by the Commissioners or have made him unwilling to accept such 
an appointment. The Magistrates named were appointed to serve until 
May 3d following, and then the Governor and his Assistants or Magis- 
trates were to rule. His son, Samuel Gorton, Jr., was an Assistant and 
was one of the Court of Justice that sat in the Province.' And the 
Commissioners issued this order : " Having received from some of 
the principal Sachems of the Narragansett Indians a submission or 
surrender of themselves, their subjects and their lands to the protection, 
government and dispose of our dread sovereign, giving us a deed dated 
April 19th, 1644, wherein they and all the other Sachems of that coun- 
try did then submit, subject and give over themselves to his late Majesty, 
we, his Majesty's Commissioners, command that no person of what 
colony soever presume to exercise any jurisdiction but such as procure 
authority from us ; and we also declare that " The King's Province " doth 
extend to Pawcatuck river; and whereas, Major Atherton and others 
of tlie Massachusetts pretend a mortgage of a great part of the said 
country, and whereas, there is also two purchases pretended to, of two 
great tracts of land by the same, in which deed there is no mention of 
any consideration, and that it appears that the said pretending purchasers 
knezu that the said country was submitted to his Majesty, as well by 
z:'itness as by said submission bein^ eighteen years ago printed. We, 
his Majesty's Commissioners, having heard the whole business, do 
declare the said purchases to be void and order and command that the 
said purchasers shall quit and go off the said pretended purchased 
lands."' 

vii. 40-"; I, and in Lovalists of Amer., 1, i6t. "R. I. CoHec, ii, 128. 

"R. T. Pec, ii, n:,. 04. 'R. T. Rec, ii, 502. =R- T. Rec, h, 

50. 60. The R. T. Reeds., i. 466, contain what is certified to by Edw. Rawson, 
pecy. of he Mass. Court, as a letter written by the command of Charles the 
Second, dated June 21. i66,'?, (but thirteen days after Charles sinrned the new 
charter of the R. I. and Prov. Plantation^ according the rieht of John Scott and 
others of the .Atherton company to the Nnrraoransett territory, which writinp: is 
of doubtful authenticity. Scott was an active supporter of the renutcd Narra- 
gansett patent, and he was afterwards convicted and imnrisoned for forsrery 
and other crimes [Palfrey's Hist. N. E., ii, 564 note and 58.^ note. Aspinwall's 
remarks on the Narragansett patent, Sidney S. Rider, Pub., 28-37 note], Seq. p. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 123 

The Commissioners then sat to hear the complaints of the town of 
Warwick. The ]\lassachusetts Magistrates refused to appear before 
the Commissioners to answer the numerous complaints of Warwick 
or of others or to indicate their claims or acts, and denied the right 
of the Commissioners to hear and determine causes. A letter was 
received by the Commissioners from Williams stating that he had been 
many years engaged in pleading with Massachusetts and in behalf of 
his loving friends of Warwick with the Massachusetts Magistrates, who 
would be pleased were Mr. Gorton and his friends destroyed, and advis- 
ing that the Massachusetts colony be reduced to obedience'. The 
petition that was four years since addressed by the people of Warwick 
to the General Court of Massachusetts, complaining of the contmued 
oppression and suffering occasioned by the remaining subjected mhabit- 
ants and giving notice that they should proceed before the Kmg m 
corncil unless some arrangements were made satisfactory to them, the 
Massachusetts Court having given no heed to, now twenty-two years 
after the first occasion for complaint arose, during which tmie there had 
been unremitted depredations and oppression regardless of the many 
orders and the prohibition in the charter, and yet debarred the privi- 
leo-es of trade, their goods exchanged second or third-handed,_ their 
property destroyed by the subjected inhabitants who occupied their best 
lands, and the order of banishment to this day unrepealed, they of 
Warwick now laid their precise and commendably brief complaint 
before the Commissioners.* This, at this late day, was the first petition 
to the government for reparation that Gorton or any of the Warwick 
people had made. There was in this no claim for damages to the 
person, but only for property losses. From this it is more than probable 
that they would not have sought redress had they, after the first assault 
on them, been allowed to settle down in peace. 

The Commissioners, after the hearings, issued on April 4th from 
Warwick an order " that all those gifts or grants of land lying on the 
eastern side of Pawcatuck and a north line drawn to the Massachusetts, 
made by his Majesty's colonv of the Massachusetts to any person what- 
soever, or by that usurped authority called the United Colonies, to be 
void.'"' And on April 17th they ordered the removal of dl both Indians 
and Whites, Massachusetts subjects, from these lands." 

The Massachusetts Magistrates, in lieu of their appearance before 
the King's Commissioners, put forth on May 30th, 1665, what they 
called an apologetical reply, a document of " vituperation and obscurity 
of meaning," in which they incorporated the pith of "Hypocrisy 
Unmasked," including in it the old petition of Benedict Arnold and his 
company. As nearly twenty-five years had elapsed since the events 
referred to had occurred, it was clear enough that the consequences which 
the petition pretended were completely falsified. It, therefore, suited 
the General Court to quote the Providence petition as stating that 
Gorton and his company were already the vile and dangerous men 
which the petitioners only said they might become in a certain con- 
tingency. In other words, the court so garbled the petition as to make 
It assert as an existing fact that which was only put as a possible 
consequence. However heretical it may appear, it is difficult to escape 
the suspicion that the Puritans sometimes shov/ed signs of human 
weakness.' 

note 'R. I. Rec, ii, 136. 'Warwick's complaint, dated Mar. 

4. 1664-S, in R. I. Collec' ii, 231. and in 2d Mass. Collec^ viii. 6S 
»R I Rec. ii, 93. 'R- I- Rec, ii. 132. 'Bryant's Hist U. S.. 

ii/71. 'Loyalists of Amer., i, 14S. 2d. Mass. Collec, vui, 55-58; other 



124 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

On May 2d, 1665, Colonel Nichols and all the other King's Commis- 
sioners with him drew up, signed and forwarded to the Massachusetts 
Court an address regarding its refusal of its members to appear and 
defend themselves, and regarding a report circulated that the King 
had sent here to take away any civil liberties. It said: "We declare 
as false and protest that they are diametrically contrary to the truth, 
as ere long we shall make it appear more plainly. These personal 
slanders with which we are calumniated, as private m.en we slight ; as 
Christians we forgive, and will not mention; but as persons employed 
by his sacred Majesty we cannot suffer his sacred honor to be eclipsed 
by a cloud of black reproaches and some seditious speeches without 
demanding justice from you against those who have said, reported or 
made them.'" And the Commissioners on May i8th addressed to the 
Massachusetts Magistrates the following: "The end of the first plant- 
ers coming hither was, as was expressed in your address, the enjoyment 
of the liberty of your own conscience. We, therefore, admire that you 
should deny liberty of conscience to any, and especially wlien the King 
requires it, and that upon a vain conceit of your ov.n that it will disturb 
your enjoyments which the King often hath said it shall not.'" 

And Commissioner Col. Cartwright addressed to Mr. Gorton the 
following: "These gentlemen of Boston would make us believe that 
they really think that the King has given them so much power in their 
charter to do unjustly, that he reserved none for himself to call them 
to account for doing so. In short, they refuse to let us hear complaints 
against them, so that at the present we can do nothing in your behalf; 
but I hope shortly to go to England, where, if God bless me thither, 
I shall truly represent your suffering and your loyalty. Your assured 
friend, George Cartwright. Boston, May 26, 1665.'"° 

The three Commissioners Carr, Cartwright and Meverick on July 
26th, 1665, addressed the Massachusetts Court as follows: "We thought 
when we received our commission and instructions that the King and 
his Council knew what was granted to you in your charter, and what 
right his Majesty had to give us such a commission and commands; 
and we thought the King, his Chancellor and his secretaries had suffi- 
ciently convinced you that this commission did not infringe your 
charter; but since you must needs misconstrue all these letters and 
endeavors, and that you will make use of that authority which he hath 
given you to oppose that sovereignty which -he hath over you, we shall 
not loose more of our labors upon you. but refer it to his Majesty's 
wisdom, who is of power enough to make himself to be obeyed in all 
his dominions.'" The Commissioners also wrote to their government, 
among other things regarding the Massachusetts Magistrates, that 
" Seven years they can easily spin out in writing. If writing will serve 
the turn, as thev suppose it will, they can keep the business in agitation 
until the King 'and all his secretaries there and all his good subjects 
here be weary of it. Both the readiest and surest way is for his 
Majesty to take away their charter, which they have several ways for- 
feited, but that without a visible force will not be effected.'" 

The Commissioners composed some differences with the Dutch 
settlers, finally arranged for the removal of the subjected Indians 
[delivering to Ponham £20, " ordered as a present unto him if he would 

letters of the Commis, Seq. 58-64. «2d. Mass. Collec, viii, 75-77: other 

Corns, letters, Seq. 81-87, 00. "R. I. Collec, ii, 246. 'Reference 

is made to an order signed in Aug., 1665. by all of the Kings Corns, upon the 
subject of complaint prepared against Mass., which order we are unab e to find. 
Staples. ^O'Calligan's Documents, etc., iii, 102. Hutchinson s Collec, 

412-420, or ii, 139-150, is King's Corns, report. 'R. I. Rec, n, 127-129, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 125 

find a place to live upon " away from Warwick] ; and finding their 
authority still resisted by the government of Massachusetts Bay, re- 
ported the result to the King and Lord Chancellor in December, 1665. 
The report answered the inquiries the King had instructed them to 
make and gave much other information at length. It stated that " the 
Narragansett Sachems did in the year 1644, by writing, surrender 
themselves, their people and country into the late King's protection; 
two of which Sachems now living did actually in their own persons 
surrender themselves, people and country into his royal Majesty's 
protection before his Commissioners, and deliver to them that very 
deed made in 1644, v/hich has been carefully kept by Mr. Gorton. This 
Narragansett country is almost all the land belonging to this colony, 
which cannot subsist without it. This colony, which now admits all 
religions, even Quakers and Generalists, was begun by such as Massa- 
chusetts would not suffer to live among them, and is generally hated by 
the other colonies, who endeavored several ways to suppress them. 
They (the other colonies) maintained other Indians against the Narra- 
gansett Indians. The Commissioners of the United Colonies disposed 
of a great part of his country, pretending they had conquered it from 
the Pequot Indians; but evidence being made that the Narragansetts 
had conquered it before the English began their war, and that the 
right was in him who sold it to the Rhode Islanders; and his Majesty's 
Commissioners, not thinking it justifiable for any colony to dispose of 
land without their own limits, determined it for the Rhode Islanders."" 

The King, upon receiving the report from his Commissioners, ordered 
their return.* He at the same time addressed a letter to Massachusetts, 
stating that as he had received full information from his Commissioners 
of their treatment in the several colonies, in all of which they had 
received great satisfaction but only in that of Massachusetts, and not- 
withstanding many expressions of loyalty from those who govern that 
colony, so believe that his Majesty hath no jurisdiction over them, but 
that all persons must acquiesce in their judgments, however unjust, his 
Majesty thought fit to recall his Commissioners, which he hath at the 
present done, that he might receive a more particular account from 
them; and his Majesty expressly commanded the Governor and Council 
of Massachusetts to forthwith send representatives to England to 
answer before him the complaints prepared against them, and for their 
conduct to the Commissioners ; and he further expressly charged that 
the Governor and Council of Massachusetts immediately set all persons 
at liberty who had been imprisoned for petitioning or appealing to his 
Commissioners ; and for the better prevention of all differences ordered 
that the bounds and limits of the several colonies made by his Majesty's 
Commissioners continue to be observed until his Majesty should find 
cause to alter them. That full obedience be given to his signification 
of his pleasure in all particulars.* 

582: iii, 40, 61 ; iv. 373. ^King's letter to his Corns., dated Apr. 6, 1666. 

'King's letter to Mass.. dated Apr. — , 1666, probably in full in Ryerson's Loyal- 
ists of Amer., i, 169-171. King's letter dated Apr. 10, 1666, in Hutchinson's Hist. 
Mass., i, 547, 548. The copy of his Majesty's Signification to the Mass. Colony 
was _ surreptitiously conveyed over to them by some unknown hand before the 
original came to Boston ; and formerly the very original of Mr. Meverick's 
petition to the King and Council, concerning the Mass. Colony, was stolen out 
of the Lord Arlington's office in Whitehall by one Capt. Scott and delivered to 
the Governor and Council at Boston. This I affirm positively to be true, though 
when I questioned Scott upon the matter he said a clerk gave it to him. 
[Letter of Nichols to Morrice, in O'Calligan's Documents, etc., iii, 136.] This 
Scott, one of the most active in the pretended Narragansett purchases, and who 
obtained the reputed accord to his right therein from the King [see ante p. 122I, 
was finally brought to trial in Connecticut and convicted under ten charges, one 



126 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The King's ccn.pliments in a letter to the government of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations — The Massachusetts court send ship-masts to the King 
in lieu of agents to answer before him — The Massachusetts people protest 
against the course of their magistrates — Pavvtuxet claimants capture the Court 
of Trials — They protest against Williams and his opposition to them — Morton's 
scandalous book — Gorton's letter to Morton — Williams' letter to the Plymouth 
court — Gorton's letter to Governor Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut. 

The following: from the Kinp: was at the same time communicated to 
the government of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: 
" Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well ; having received so full 
and satisfactory accotmt from our Commissioners, both of the good 
reception you have given them and also of your dutifulness and obedi- 
ence to us, we cannot but let you know how much we are pleased 
therewith, judging that respect of yours toward our officers to be the 
true and natural fruit which demonstrates what fidelity and affection 
toward us is rooted in your hearts. And although your carriage doth 
of itself most justly deserve our praise and approbation, yet it seems 
to be set off with more lustre by the contrary deportment of the colony 
of Massachusetts; as if by their refractoriness they had designed to 
recommend and heighten the merit of your compliance with our direc- 
tions for the peaceable and good government of our good subjects in 
those parts. You may, therefore, assure yourselves that we shall never 
be unmindful of this your loyal and dutiful behavior, but shall upon 
all occasions take notice of it to your advantage, promising you our 
constant protection and royal favor in all things that may concern 
your safety, peace and welfare."" 

Colonel Cartwright was made the bearer of the sum of the Proceed- 
ings of the King's Commissioners and of other letters to his Majesty 
and the Lord Chancellor, and of other papers to England. In his 
passage the vessel was captured by the Dutch and his papers were taken 
and never recovered.' Copies were ordered by the Rhode Island 
Assembly to be sent to England by the first opportunity. 

With the closing of the work of the King's Commissioners there 
dawned a new era of joy to Gorton and the other Providence and 
Warwick settlers. They secured, now for the first time, a measure of 
what they so long ago hoped for under the first charter, " peace in the 
quiet enjoyment of their possessions." On account of the difficulties 
there had been but few accessions to the inhabitants of Warwick ; they 
were in all but a handful of impoverished adventurers; but comparative 
peace for nine years followed the favorable decisions for them, when 
again their dwellings, with those of the Providence people's, were 
destroyed by the Indian wars. 

The King's last letter occasioned the calling of the Massachusetts 
Court in an extraordinary session". It, however, refused to obey the 
King's order to again send representatives to vindicate their acts before 
him;' and in the fall thev met again according to adjournment." To 
this court nearly two htmdred of the principal inhabitants of INIassachu- 
setts, " our fathers." the editor of the Danforth papers writes, " who 

of them heinjT for forper>'. and sentenced to pay a fine of ??on, to be irnprisoned 
durinfr the plensure of the court, and to pive bonds t othe amount of £500 for 
future pond behavior. [Conn. T?pcds., ii, 16. comp. 4?o.l 'Kinc's letter, 

R. T. Rec. ii, 149. 'Hutchinson's Hist. Mass.. i, 250. *2d Mass. 

Collec, viii, 98. "sd Mass. Collec. viii, loR, 100. _ _ '"Ryerson's 

Loyalists of Amer., i. 181 note. Sessions Oct., 1666. Petition in Hutchinson's 
Collec, 511-513, or ii, 248-215, and in 2d Mass. Collec, viii, 102-107. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 127 

exhibited so much good sense and sound pohcy," protested against the 
course of the Magistrates, but they still refused to send representatives, 
and this time instead sent two large masts^ thirty-four yards long and 
a shipload of timber, the freight thereon costing them sixteen hundred 
pounds^ sterling, as a present to the King, which he graciously accepted. 
And the fleet in the West Indies being in want of provisions, a subscrip- 
tion and contribution was recommended through the colony for bring- 
ing in provisions to be sent to the fleet for his Majesty's service.' Further 
action was suspended for a time, as Charles was absorbed by exciting 
questions at home, his war with Denmark and Holland and his intrigues 
with France. 

While the people of the Providence colonies had been engaged in 
arresting the invasions of their foreign foes, the Pawtuxet party, their 
internal foes, had been politically undermining them, having now nearly 
secured the control of the government. William Harris, his brother 
Thomas Harris and William Carpenter, all three of them Pawtuxet 
partners, obtained the places of Assistants, and four Assistants with 
the Governor or Deputy Governor, formed the high Court of Trials. 
Thus setting as judges in this court, which was likely to have before 
it their causes, they might have considered the object of their 
scheme to acquire the lands of nearly the whole colony well nigh 
accomplished. Many struggles with them and the towns of Providence 
and Warv*^ick before the local courts followed. Not succeeding in 
these, they continued the strife to strengthen themselves greater polit- 
ically by electing controlling majorities in the town councils and in the 
General Assembly. The papers upon the subject, which were sent from 
Warwick to Clark for his use before the King and Council against 
them, were by spy or traitor obtained by them and held at Newport 
ior their service.^ Litigation and costly trials were kept up by them 
against the colony and against the towns of Providence and Warwick 
to secure an acknowledgment of their claims and place them in posses- 
sion of the land. 

On November 19th, 1667, a protest similar to the nearly thirty years old 
one by the same party, Arnold and his eleven others against Gorton 
and others of Providence, was issued now against Williams for " keep- 
ing up a difference with Pawtuxet men," signed by " Sixteen Proprietors 
of the town." These proprietors were the barest minority of the people 
of the town, and ten of them were either Harris partners or closely 
allied blood relatives of these partners.^ Harris, arraigned at court 
for calling an Assembly without warrant and for making another rout 
of settlers from the lands at Providence, admitted his guilt and plead 
the justification of his acts." And the violent and threatening acts 
of the Massachusetts government were such that the Rhode Island and 
Providence Assembly passed an act of war of defense against them.' 

In 1669, while Gorton in advanced years had retired from official 
cares, Nathaniel Morton published a libellous and most scandalous book. 

'2d Mass. Collec, viii, no. 'The freight £1600 the Mass. Magistrates 

paid on these presents amounted to within £400 of all the Warwick people asked 
for twenty-two years' spoliations and damages. 'Hutchinson's Hist. 

Mass., i, 257. Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, 180-182. Col. Nichols' letter to 
Mass. May 19, 1667, enclosing a letter from the King, in Hutchinson's Papers, 
li, 139. Col. Nichols' letter to Mass., June 12, 1668, regarding the King's letter 
of Apr. 10, 1666, in Hutchinson's Papers., 427. or ii, 156. *R. I. Rec, ii. 

78. ''Book Notes, Vol. T3, No. 23. Harris, Arnold and Carpenter had 

bought of the other ori.ginal claimants and now claimed three-fourths of all 
the lands deeded to Williams, and all lands west, north and south as far as the 
Pawtuxet river and its branches extended under the forgery. Lands of R. 
Island, loi, 106. "R. L Rec, ii, 208. 'R. L Rec, ii, 206. 



128 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Morton professed to have derived the greater part of his information 
from Bradford's history, but an examination of this discloses that there 
is nothing set down in that history relating to Gorton. Morton also 
had been for years the keeper of the Plymouth records, so v^rould have 
known that what he wrote of Gorton was wrong had he not avoided 
consulting them. Gorton wrote to him the following indignant letter of 
denial : 

" I understand that you have lately put forth a book of records ; 
whether of Church or State I know not, but this I know, that I am 
unjustly enrolled in it. You peremptorily judge of one you know not, 
for I am a stranger to you; besides that, your understanding reacheth 
not the things whence God exerciseth his people (I Cor. ii, 14) with 
wishes of better things in you and all men. I must give you a true 
description of our understanding from the Apostle Jude, verse ten : 
therefore I have no railing speech to return, or judgment of blasphemy 
(as the words are), either to seek any revenge of myself or to comply 
with any such spirit I dare not ; but I dare not but comply with the 
spirit of the Apostle in this his saying: The Lord rebuke thee (Jude 9). 
My second word concerns your assuming authority to canonize and 
put into the rank and number of Saints such men when they are dead 
which in their lifetime were persecutors, especially you having acknowl- 
edged them to be such yourself; as also to throw down under your 
feet and make as brute beasts having only hope in this present life 
such as are known to be fearers of God, worshipping him instantly day 
and night, though they be not acknowledged to be such by some par- 
ticular Sectaries as yourself, for you are no orthodox Christian because 
you deny the whole and complete word of God to be concerned in the 
present state of the chuch of Christ, and have chosen a part of it only 
to concern your present profession ; therefore a Sectarie and no Catholic 
Christian. But for these things you seek to besmear me with, which 
return justly upon yourself, mine adversaries shall be my judges where 
any spark of humanity remains. I have often wondered in my younger 
days how the Pope came to such a height of arrogance, but since I 
came to New England I have perceived the height of that triple crown 
and the depth of that sea whence such things arise, and not from the 
presence of Peter, but from the corrupting of the Apostles' doctrine, 
bending and bowing it to comply with corrupt avarice, pride and super- 
stition and vain imaginations of the minds of men setting up their gods 
at Dan and Beersheba (if you understand the etymology of the words). 
And the glory there is no other but that the Levitical Priests carved 
below the mount of God, forming it of the ear and heart jewels of 
the Egyptians, adorning carnal Israel who turn back in their hearts 
into the house of bondage whence they were delivered. 

"A third word I have to say concerns your office of record; mistake 
me not, I meddle not with your record further than they concern myself. 
Do not vest my words, as once they were in a letter taken in pieces, and 
what was plainly expressed to be spoken of the clergy was applied to 
the Magistrates, to make me obnoxious among men; and when the 
truth appeared it was professed that it was done by a reverend Divine 
before the State of England, who got no honor there by that, whoever 
he was. Deal fairly with me, as I shall do with you and all men. I 
then affirm that your record is fetched further than Cape Cod, namely, 
from him who was from the beginning a murderer also; and truth he 
abode not in, nor can he abide it. And I take it to be the highest 
point of murder to strike at the life of the soul, which life is the spirit 
of Christ, which I profess to live by and account all other life not 
worthy the name of life with respect unto that (Gal. ii, 20). Your 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 129 

record, therefore, comes from afar. It ariseth out of the bottomless 
pit, the smoke whereof is as a stifling fog of darkness in your book. 

" It is untruly recorded concerning Plymouth's dealings with me ; 
conceals many passages that were enacted and falsifies things expressed. 
A difference between Mr. Ralph Smith and myself was not the occasion 
of Plymouth's dealings with me. If you had recorded truly you would 
made report that Plymouth's dealings with me had been their threat- 
ening of a widow, one Ellen Aldridge, who they said they would send 
out of the colony as a vagabond; whereas nothing was laid to her 
charge, only it was whispered that she had smiled in your congrega- 
tion; and she having been a woman of good report in England, and 
newly come over; being careful of her credit, she fled into the woods 
to escape the shame which was threatened to be put upon her, there 
remaining several days and nights, at the least part of the nights, and 
absented herself again before people stirred in the morning. My speak- 
ing on her behalf (she being then my wife's servant) was the occasion 
that Plymouth government took to deal with me. Whereupon they 
called me to a court more privately held to examine me, and one of 
them indulging upon a point aggravating the matter more than it 
deserved, I said he spoke hyperbolically ; whereupon they asked your 
Elder then present what was the meaning of that word, and he was 
pleased to expound it that I told the Magistrate that he lied. And this 
was their dealing with me; and accordingly they gave their own con- 
struction of what I spoke afterwards. Only in your court more pub- 
licly, the foreman of the jury (your Elder's son, Jonathan Brewer) 
befriended me so much as to move the court that I should not speak 
on my own behalf at all, and there ;was no Attorney to be had in those 
days that I knew of. 

" In the time of these agitations Mr. Smith took offense at m.e. 
Whether of himself or instigated I know not, neither know I any occa- 
sion I gave him, unless it was because his wife and others of his family 
frequented very usually morning and evening family service, and so 
did a religious maid living then with your teacher, Mr. Reyner. Mis- 
tress Smith after expressing herself how glad she was that she could 
come into a family where her spirit was refreshed in the ordinances of 
God as in former days. In this offense taken by Mr. Smith he applied 
himself to the Governor of Plymouth for help to break his covenant 
made with me, I having hired one part of his house for the term of 
four whole years. Whereupon I was persuaded to put the matter to 
arbitrament. The men were appointed, my writings delivered as I 
remember. John Cooke was one, an eminent member of your church, 
who shortly after said the writings were commanded out of their hands 
by the Governor' (Prence), insomuch that they could do nothing to 
issue the matter, neither could 1 procure my writings again unto this 
day, lest the justice of my cause should appear to any. But the court 
proceeded to fine and banish, together with sentence given that my 
family should depart out of my own hired house (Acts xxviii, 30) 
within the space of fourteen days upon the penalty of another great 
sum of money besides my fine paid, and their further wrath and dis- 
pleasure. Which time to depart fell to be in as mighty a storm of 
snow as I have seen in the country ; my wife being turned out of doors 
in the said storm with a young child at her breast (the infant having 
at that very time the measles breaking out upon it, which the cold 
forced in again, causing sickness nigh unto death), who had been as 

■The Gov. uniformly wrote his name Prence, though Morton and others wrote 
it Prince. Bradford's Hist. Plymouth, 362. 'Plymouth Reeds., i, 100, 



130 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

tenderly brought up as any man's wife then in that town; and I myself 
to travel in the wilderness I knew not whither; the people comforting 
my ,wife and children when I was gone with this, that it was impossible 
for me to come aHve to any plantation. I say no more of this now, 
though I can say much more, with the testimony of men's consciences; 
but I have been silent to cover other men's shame and not my own, for 
I could wish to be a bondsman, so long as I have to live upon the face 
of the earth, in human respects, that all the agitations and transactions 
that have passed between the men of New England and myself were 
in print without diminution or extenuation, without covert false deal- 
ing or painted hypocrisy. It should be a crown, aye a diadem upon 
my grave, if the truth in more public or more private agitations were 
but in prose though not in poetry, as it was acted in all the places 
wherein you seek to blemish me" (Job xix, 23, 24; xxxi, 35, 36). 

" I perceive what manner of honor you put upon me in Rhode Island, 
which the actors may be ashamed of and you to be their herald. I 
have been silent of things done at Plymouth, Rhode Island and else- 
where, and am still in many respects, but have not forgotten them. I 
have heard that some of Plymouth then in place were instigators of 
the island. I could name the parties of both places, being met together 
at Cohannet (Taunton). I carried myself obedient to the government 
of Plymouth so far as became me, at the least to the great wrong of 
my family more than in above said, as can be made to appear if 
required; for I understood they had commission wherein authority was 
derived, which authority I reverenced ; but the island at that time had 
none, therefore, no authority legally derived to deal with me; neither 
had they (Coddington's court) the choice of the people, but set up 
themselves. But such fellows as you can bring men to the whipping 
post at their pleasure either in person or name without fault committed, 
or they invested with any authority. 

"Again I affirm you to be a deceitful recorder, in that you declare 
that I have spoken words (or to that effect) that there is no state nor 
condition of mankind after this present life. I do verily believe that 
there is not a man, woman or child upon the face of the earth that 
will come forth and say that ever they heard any such words come out 
of my mouth. And I appeal unto God, the judge of all secrets, that 
there was never such a thought entertained in my heart. Therefore, 
I do verily believe it was hatched in the bosom of the proper author of 
your scroll. I am far from the opinion you slander me with, for I 
hold and shall through God maintain that he who takes upon him to 
be an. interpreter of God's word and brings not eternity into the things 
or matters whereof he speaks, that man is a false prophet or interpreter 
of the word of God. You could not have clothed me with any piece 
of Saul's armor that would have fitted me worse than this scandal, 
and I know you have many pieces thereof among you. 

" Whereas you charge me with passion, I know not your meaning in 
that word. It is an ambiguous phrase, but through God's goodness I 
know the passion of Christ. And the Apostles' saying, that he fulfils 
the rest of his passion in the flesh (Col. i, 24), and he being in a mul- 
titude of passions (2 Cor. i, 12, 23). And I know that Elijah was a 
man of passions, yet he was strong in prayer. And here you extort 
a word from me which I thought would have gone in secret to the grave 
with me, for I never uttered it with my lips to any, though my heart 
hath resented it many a time. The thirty-three years is upon expiration 
since I arrived first in New England, in which tract of time I have 

105. Judge Brayton, R. I. H. Tr., No. 17. "Force's Tract, Vol. iv, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 131 

washed my face with tears day and night in the ordinances of Jesus 
Christ, under the scandals, reproaches, calumniations and wrongs put 
upon me, for no other reason (though covered with other wizards) 
but for the profession of Jesus Christ. Yet have not these passions 
been in any imbittered sourness of spirit, but from enlarged desires, 
when the thing desired hath been presented as in Joseph when he saw his 
brethren, and in Jacob when Rachel appeared unto him. And I know 
they are reserved in a bottle of transparent glasses and written 
not on the black lines of the oldness of the letter, but in the lines of the 
light of life, or newness of the spirit. And I well know that God 
hath turned men's dealings with me into schools of learning (over- 
shooting them in their own bow), as God did in that carnal and cruel 
act of Joseph's brethren, that the glory might be in themselves and not 
in him (Gen. xlv, 4, 5). I have told you in this a small portion of my 
passion, yet more than was my purpose to have done. Scandalize me 
for it, and tell the wrold of it again and also of what I have lost by 
it; and whilst you are calculating and summing up the number of days 
contained in so many years I will appeal to God, the searcher of hearts, 
as a witness of the truth which I now write. Let me tell you this much, 
that I write now in passion, for it draws tears from mine eyes to see 
the nature of man (which I myself by nature am) so evidently and 
perspicuously appear in you; for he that writes or speaks of the word 
of God and cannot apply unto himself (in a true sense) whatsoever 
is contained therein, he is no true minister of salvation, but of con- 
demnation (2 Cor. iii, 9; xi, 26, 27). But let this stand as a parable 
to you and your teachers, whilst you in the meantime vent your corrupt- 
ing and contagious poison. 

"And whereas you say in your records that I am a sordid man in 
my life. I tell you what I say of that, and do you hide it from none: 
That I dare be so bold as to lay my conversation among men to the 
rule of humanity with any minister among you. In all the passages of 
my life which God hath brought me through from my youth unto this 
day, that it hath been as comely and innocent as his, according to present 
occasions, so that nothing shall be covered or painted over with 
hypocrisy. Whose ox or whose ass have I taken, or when or where 
have I lived upon other men's labors and not wrought with my own 
hands for things honest in the sight of men, to eat my own bread? But 
these things are beneath my spirit, either to speak or write; but you 
force to apologize; for would any man think that the spirit of one 
man should be so audaciously impudent as to bring forth such falsities? 

" I would say something of the foundation of your church at Plymouth 
if I thought it were not a matter too low to talk of, for when suit was 
made to the church in Holland, out of which your church came, to 
procure a dismission of a sister there to the church of Plvmouth, though 
the gentlewoman upon occasion had been in New England divers years, 
yet a dismission would not be granted. Their preaching member then 
with them I knew to be a godly man and was familiarlv acquainted with 
him now about half a hundred years ago in Gorton, where I v/as born 
and bred and the fathers of my body for many generations. The Elders 
gave the ground and reason that they could not dismiss their sister to 
the church at Plymouth in New England because it consisted of an 
apostacised people fallen from the faith of the Gospel, and when through 
such importunities a writing was procured, properlv of advice to their 
sister how to carry herself, her husband the solicitor, whom you know, 
I need not to name, and I think you know after what manner the writing 
was read in your church by your ancient Elder; part conceded and 
part expounded to the best. If you know not I do, for I was present, 



132 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Now to have this testimony of aspersion concerning the foundation 
of your church by the mother out of which you came may be consid- 
ered, I think you can say, little more orders of the church of Rome. 

"A fourth word I have to say concerning the stuff, as you contempt- 
uously call it. What stuff you ignorantly make of the word of God. 
For the rest of your expressions, which you charge upon us, you falsely 
apply them. We never called sermons of salvation, tales ; nor any 
ordinances of the Lord an abomination or vanity; nor holy ministers, 
necromancers. We honor, reverence and practice these things ; there- 
fore through guilt you falsify our intent. And, however, you term 
me a belcher out of error, I would have you to know that I hold my 
call to preach the Gospel of Christ not inferior to the call of any 
minister in the country, though I was not bred up in the schools of 
human learning; and I bless God that I never was, lest I had been 
drowned in pride through Aristotle's principals and other human 
philosophy. Yet this I doubt not of, but that there hath been as much 
true use made of the languages within this twenty years past for the 
opening of the Scripture in the place where I lived as hath been in 
any church in New England. When I was last in England through 
importunities I was persuaded to speak the word of God publicly in 
divers and eminent places as any were then in London ; and also about 
London and places more remote; many times the ministers of the place 
being hearers, and sometimes many together at appointed lectures in 
the country. I have spoken in the audience of ail sorts of people and 
personages under the title of a Bishop or a King; and was invited to 
speak in the presence of such as had the title of Excellency ; and I was 
lovingly embraced wherever I came, in the word uttered, with the 
most eminent Christians in the place. And for leave-taking at our 
departure, not unlike the ancient custom of the Saints upon record in 
the Holy Scriptures, and I daresay as evident testimony of God's 
power going forth with his word spoken, manifested as ever any in 
New England had, publicly and immediately after the words delivered; 
the people giving thanks to God that ever such came to be uttered 
among them; with entreatly to stay, and further manifestations, in as 
eminent places as are in England; whence myself did know the Doctors 
of note had formerly preached and at that time such as had more honors 
than ordinary preachers have; who gave me the call thither in way of 
loving Christian fellowship, the like abounding in the hearer. There- 
fore, I know not with what New England is leavened or spirited. 
Indeed, once in London three or four malignant persons caused me to 
be summoned before a committee of Parliament because I was not 
a universit}' man. I appeared and my accusers also, one of them a 
schoolmaster in Christ's Hospital, another or two Elders of independent 
or separated churches, who were questioned what they had against me. 
They said I had preached. Divers of the committee answered and said 
that was true, they had heard me. The chairman asked my accusers 
what I had said. They said I had spoken of cherubims, but they could 
not repeat anything; btit they said they were sure I had made the 
people of God sad. But the sum of all their accusations was brought 
out in a book which they said contained divers blasphemies. The 
book was only that which was printed concerning the proceedings of 
the Massachusetts against myself and others. The honorable committee 
took the book and looked over it and found no such thing there as 
they ignorantly suggested. Then my accusers desired Mr. Winslow 
might be called forth, whom they had procured to appear there, whom 
they thought would oppose me strongly with respect to the book. He 
spoke judiciously and manlike, desiring to be excused, for he had noth- 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 13J 

ing to say concerning me in that place ; his business with me lay before 
another committee of Parliament; which gave the Table good satis- 
faction. My answers and arguments were honorably taken by the 
chairman and the rest of the committee, and myself dismissed as a 
preacher of the Gospel. 1 r r- » • u 

" Some of you have upbraided us as not having the word of God with 
us because of our paucity. I think those called Quakers are as many 
as you; but I think them never the better for this multitude, nor the 
Papists who cover that part of the earth called Christendom. It hath 
ever been the way of the world to make itself great by multitude (Gen. 
X, 8, 9, 10; Hosea i, 7, 11) ; but Christ stilleth his flock to be little and 
his disciples few (I Cor. xvi, 19). 

"A fifth word I have to say is, in that you send the reader to a book 
printed by Edvv. Winslow for a more full and perfect intelligence. 
Mr. Winslow and myself had humanlike correspondence in England, 
and before the honorable committee which he referred himself unto; 
and not to wrong the dead, I saw nothing to the contrary but that I 
had as good acceptation in the eyes of that Committee as himself had, 
though he had a greater charter and a larger commission than myself 
had. I do not know or remember any particulars in that book, for since 
the publishing thereof I have always had my thoughts exercised about 
things of better and greater concernment. I saw it in London, but read 
but little of it ; and when I came over to these parts my_ ancient friend, 
Mr. John Brown, discoursing with me about those affairs in England, 
told me he had read such a book printed or put forth by Mr. Winslow. 
I told him I had seen it, but read very little of it. Mr. Brown, ^ you 
know, was a man approved among you and elsewhere (for aught I 
know' or ever heard) wherever he came; an Assistant in your govern- 
ment, a Commissioner for the United Colonies, etc., who thus spoke 
to me in our discourse. I will not pervert nor alter a word of the will 
or words of the dead. I say he affirmed this unto me, that he would 
maintain that there were forty lies printed in that book; and I doubt 
not but Mr. Brown's word and judgment in his time would have been 
acceptable and taken by any of you as authority regarding the book. 
Therefore add thy writing unto it if any spark of humanity be left, 
to inform your readers of the truth of things; or else take it to your- 
self that you are he who goes about to seduce and corrupt the m.inds of 
men with falsities. Warwick, June 30th, 1669. Samuel _ Gorton.'"" 

It is not known that Morton was wanting in the humanity to add the 
writing in acknowledgment of his errors, for such a writing could not 
at the time been published in the colonies, the only press then in the 
colonies being that which was under the control of the Massachusetts 
authorities. 

There were many people in Massachusetts and in Rhode Island v/ho 
felt the need of something to justify their history, and accordingly the 
truth as Gorton had made plain was suppressed, and the scandalous 
fiction of Morton was seized upon with avidity and copied and recopied 
in hundreds of thousands of books, and is to be found in all libraries 
having new England histories; while the truth, the letter of Gorton's 
here given, the writer could find but in one of the public libraries in 
the second largest of our cities. The circulation of INIorton's fable 
was so profuse'that it became the generally accented correct life sketch 
of Samuel Gorton. 

The following from Roger Williams was sent to Major Mason and the 
Court of Plymouth: "'When the next year after my banishment 

Tr. 7. The first printing press in R. I. 1745. Holmes' Annals. *R. I. 



134 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

(1636-1637) the Lord drew the bow of the Pequot war against the 
country in which Sir the Lord made yourself with others a blessed 
instrument of peace to all New England, I had my share of service to 
the whole land in that Pequot business inferior to very few that acted, 
for I upon letters received from the Governor and council at Boston, 
requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to break and 
hinder the league labored for by the Pequots against the Mohegans and 
Pequots against the English, the Lord helped me immediately to put 
my life into my hand. Three days and nights my business forced me 
to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose hands 
and arms, we thought, wreaked with the blood of my countrymen, 
when God wondrously preserved me and helped me to break to pieces 
the Pequot negotiation. Considering (upon frequent exceptions against 
Providence men) that we had no authority for civil government, I 
went purposely to England, and upon my report and petition the Parlia- 
ment granted us a charter of government for these parts, so judged 
vacant on all hands. When at Portsmouth on Rhode Island some 01 
ours, in a General Assembly (November, 1644) motioned their planting 
on this side Pawcatuck river, I, hearing that some of the Massachusetts 
reckoned this land theirs by conquest (from the Pequots). dissuaded 
from the motion until the matter should be amicably debated and com- 
posed ; for though I questioned not our right, etc., yet I feared it would 
be inexpedient and offensive and procreative of these heats and fires, 
to the dishonoring of the King's Majest}-. Some time after the Pequot 
war was closed in 1639, and our charter from the Parliament (March 
14, 1643-4) the government of Massachusetts wrote (August 27, 1645) 
to myself, then Chief-ofificer in this colony, of their receiving of a 
patent from the Parliament for the then vacant lands, as an addition to 
the Massachusetts, etc., and thereupon requesting me to exercise no 
more authority, etc., for they wrote their charter was granted some few 
weeks before ours (Ante, p. — ). I returned what I believed righteous 
and weighty to the hands of my true friend, Mr. Winthrop, the first 
mover of my coming into these parts, and to that answer of mine I 
never received the least reply ; only it is certain that at Mr. Gorton's 
complaint (May, 1646) against the Massachusetts the Lord High 
Admiral, President, said openly in a full meeting of the Commissioners 
that he knew no other charter for these parts than what Mr. Williams 
had obtained, and he was sure that that charter which the Massachusetts 
Englishmen pretended had never passed the table. Upon our humble 
address by our agent, Mr. Clark, to his Majesty (1661), and his gracious 
promise to renew our former charter, Mr. Winthrop by some mistake 
had extended upon our line, and not only so. but, as it is said, upon the 
lines of other charters also. Put the King's Majesty sending his 
Commissioners (1664) to reconcile the differences of and to settle the 
bounds between the colonies, yourselves know how the King himself, 
therefore, hath given a decision to this controversy. Our grant is 
crowned with the King's extraordinary favor to this colony, as being a 
banished one, in which his Majestv declared himself that he would 
experiment, whether civil government could consist with such liberty 
of conscience. This his Majesty's grant was startled at by his Majesty's 
high officers of State, who were to view it in course before sealing, 
but fearing the lion's roaring they couched, against their wills, in 
obedience to his Majesty's pleasure. Some of yours, as I heard lately 
told tales to the Archbishop of Canterbury, viz. : That we are a profane 
people and do not keep the Sabbath, but some do plough, etc. But, 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 135 

first, you told him not how we suffer freely all other persuasions, yea, 
the common prayer, which yourselves will not suffer.'" 

In 1675 Gorton received information that the Connecticut Indians 
intended to invade the Narragansett country. He had early, by his 
influence with the Narragansetts, prevailed upon them to observe peace, 
to abide the tribunal of the English government and refrain from 
avenging the death of their Chief; and he sent a request to Governor 
Winthrop of Connecticut that he would have the now intended invasion 
forbidden. Continuing upon the subject, Gorton writes: "My thoughts 
are in exercise concerning the policy of the English in these parts. 
People are apt in these days to give credit to every flying and false 
report, and not only so, but they will report it again, and by that means 
they become deceivers and tormentors of one another by speech and 
iealousies. There is a rumor that the Indians are in combination to 
"root out the English, which many fear (for my own part, I fear no such 
thing) as though God brought his people hither to destroy them. I 
rather fear our vain hopes groundless expectations, that they will 
become Christians, when they are invested with naught else but litteral 
principles and grounds of hypocrisy. The Gospel is of a purer nature 
than to consist in ornaments and telling of history without revealing 
the mystery thereof, which is Christ in his saints the hope of glory. 
I remember the time of the wars in Ireland (when I was young, in 
Queen Elizabeth's days of famous memory), when much English blood 
was spilt by a people like unto these, the Earl of Terrone being their 
leader, where n:any valiant soldiers lost their lives, divers noble men 
earnest for religion, v/hose names are upon my heart still; and in my 
latter days I have been in company with ancient preachers of God's 
word, men of God, now fallen asleep, v/ho have lamented the loss of 
some of those noble men (naming them) with weeping tears,_ having 
in their lifetime been intimate with them in religious and godlike con- 
cernments. I think we have no cause to suspect God's hand toward us 
in these parts, which hath removed us into a place more suitable for 
us, wherein the people are multiplied beyond thoughts of heart; and 
with all the natives decreasing by war among themselves and by dis- 
ease. If God make room by such means for the spreading of the 
English, it seems more suitable than the sword unto that royal leave 
which was granted to his subjects to plant themselves in these parts; 
and also to the charge given together with it, namely, that none of the 
English should take any lands from the natives without giving them 
satisfaction for it. And is it to be doubted that the not observing this 
charge is a great and universal grudge among the Indians at this day; 
while men take up lands and plant upon them as their own, without 
any retribution; at the least not to the Chief Sachems, if any small 
thing at all, to some base, inferior fellow, which makes the Sachems 
afraid lest by this means in short time they shall be spued out of the 
country for want of land to reside upon. And for aught that I have 
learned, this was the cause of that barbarous slaugther made of our 
friends at the Dutch plantations. Sir, my humble submission consists 
in my prayers to God for you and yours."" 

Rec, i, 457-460. Nar. Club Papers. "Rhode Island's Gift to the Nation," by 
Sidney S. Rider. =4th Mass, Collec, vii, 627. ^Arnold's Hist. 



136 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The King Philip's War — The swamp battle — Capture of Philip's wife and son — 
The Narragansetts' extinction — Warwick destroyed — Providence and Paw- 
tuxet burned, and two of the family of Massachusetts ex-subject and Pawtuxet 
claimant slain. 

In 1675 began what is known as the Philip's war, the final conflict 
between the colonies and the Indians, which resulted in the latter's 
extermination. Though the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
hardly took an active part in it, her geographical position caused her 
to suffer more than the other colonies. Warwick being more exposed, 
was one of the chief sufferers. The storm had been gathering ever 
since the tragic death of Miantinomi. Although neither England nor 
Rhode Island could give the Narragansetts the expected redress, they, 
through the advice chiefly of Gorton and Williams and the friendship 
existing between them and the people of Providence, allowed the death 
of their Chief, Miantinomi, to pass unavenged.. But they were eventu- 
ally, and from circumstances that left them no honorable choice, forced 
into the conflict. Philip, the second son of Massasoit, was the Chief of 
the Wampanoags. His elder brother Wamsutta, who had succeeded 
his father as Sachem, had fallen under suspicion of the settlers, been 
seized and confined, from the effects of which, it was believed, he fell 
into a fever and died. Philip succeeded his brother as Sachem, and 
the English, suspecting him of plotting against them, charged him and 
with such proofs that he made a confession, and submitted to the dis- 
arming of all his people. Subsequently, a new exaction was made, 
requiring him to pay a £200 penalty, and not to sell land or make 
war without the consent of Plymouth. Philip, in a reply to a friend 
who tried to persuade him from the contemplated war, complained : 
" They tried my people by their own laws and assessed damages which 
they could not pay. Their land was taken. At length a line of division 
was agreed upon between the English and my people, and I myself 
was to be responsible. Sometimes the cattle of the English would 
come into the cornfields of my people, for they did not make fences 
like the English. I must then be seized and confined till I sold another 
tract of my country for satisfaction of all damages and costs. Thus 
tract after tract is gone; but a small part of the dominion of my ances- 
tors remains. I am determined not to live till I have no country." 

Acting upon this, he appealed to the sympathies and the recollections 
of wrong to the different tribes, and urged them to forget their ancient 
animosities and combine for restoring them to their liberties and their 
domain. He gathered around him a great body of warriors, joined 
with him most of the other tribes, and the general war was commenced. 
The Narragansetts remained neutral. They received with kindness, 
fed, clothed and nursed the old men, women, children and disabled 
warriors that took refuge with them. These acts drew down upon them 
the more the hostility of the English " and opened for them the gulf 
for their destruction." The Narragansetts were ordered to give them 
up; Canonchet, the son and successor of Miantinomi, refused, and a 
force of eleven hundred and thrity-five men, besides volunteers that 
joined it, marched through the towns of Providence and Warwick 
against them. On the next day. December nth, the army was on the 
march to the place where the Indians had taken refuge. Here occurred 
the celebrated " Swamp " battle. Upwards of two hundred of the 
English were killed and wounded. Within the enclosure or fort five 
hundred Indian wigwams were set on fire, in the flames of which 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 137 

perished not less than three hundred of the sick and wounded, the 
infants and aged. The entire loss of the Indians in killed, wounded 
and prisoners was not less than one thousand, including those who 
perished in the burning wigwams. This was the principal and decisive 
battle, though afterwards there were several skirmishes and many 
towns were burned. 

About the middle of January one of the elder Sachems of the Narra- 
gansetts sent a message to General Winslow, requesting a month's 
delay in order to adjust the terms of peace; but he regarded this as 
an artifice to gain time, and shortly after, on January 27th, 1676, 
marched to the swamp where they were posted. They, anticipating 
his approach, abandoned this country, pursued by the English forces, 
and seventy of their people were captured and killed. Ten times in 
the course of 1676 the English swept the devoted region and rooted 
out all that dared to remain; all were killed, captured, or dispersed, 
many perishing miserably by famine. From the 27th of January, 1676, 
the day of the departure of the main body, the Narragansetts ceased to 
exist as a distinct people. They blended with the followers of Philip 
and shared his fortunes. 

Canonchet, the son of Miantinomi, the last grand Sachem of the 
Narragansetts, was captured in the month of April. He was offered 
his life if he would procure the submission of his tribe. This he refused 
to do. When told he must die, he replied : " I like it well. I shall 
die before my heart is soft, or I have said anything unworthy of 
myself." To insure the fidelity of the friendly tribes by committing 
them to a deed that would forever deter the Narragansetts from seeking 
their alliance, it was arranged that each of them should take a part 
in the execution. Accordingly, the Pequots shot him, the Mohegans 
cut off his head and quartered him, and the Natics, who joined the 
English, burned his body and sent his head as " a token of love and 
loyalty to the Commissioners at Hartford."^ 

July 2d " the English army marched to the south and surprised them 
in a cedar swamp near Warwick. A great slaughter ensued. IMangus, 
the old queen of the Narragansetts, a sister of Ningret, was taken and 
with ninety other captives was put to the sword. One hundred and 
seventy-one Indians fell in this massacre, without the loss of a single 
man of the English. Thence they scoured the country between Provi- 
dence and Warwick, killing many more." 

" Captain Church was commissioned by Governor Winthrop to pro- 
ceed with a volunteer force of two hundred men, chiefly Indians, to 
attack Philip in his retreat near Mount Hope. For several days they 
pursued the Indians from place to place, killing many and taking a 
large number of prisoners, among whom were Philip's wife and only 
son." Philip was subsequently pursued into a swamp, where he was 
shot through the heart by Alderman, an Indian, whose brother Philip 
had indignantly slain because he had counselled him to sue for peace. 
Thus perished Philip, who declared he would not live until he had no 
country. His head was sent to Plymouth, where it remained set up 
on a pole for twenty years; one hand was sent to Boston as a trophy, 
and the other was given to Alderman, who exhibited it for money. 
The body was quartered and hung upon four trees as a vivid illustra- 
tion of the barbarity of the age.* Philip's chief councillor, Anawon, 
escaped from the swamp with most of Philip's followers, but was a 
few days after captured by Capt. Church, who sent him alive to Ply- 

R. I., i, 411. Hubbard's Indian Wars, 157, 158, etc. *ist. Am. Ed. 

Magnalia, ii, 498, 499. Quartered with an axe. *Lands of R. Island, 



138 LIFE AND TliMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

mouth, where he was shot. Most of the other captives who were con- 
spicuous for their bravery or position met a similar fate.° Quinapin, 
a cousin of Canonchct, and next in command to him in the great swamp 
fight, with his brother, was tried at Newport by a council of war and 
was shot. The young Metacomet, son of Philip, with many other 
captives, was sent to Spain and the West Indies, where they were sold 
as slaves. Until after the invasion of the Narragansetts, the people 
of Rhode Island appear not to have participated in the war with their 
Indian neighbors, and regarded it as at least of doubtful justice; but 
when commenced, it left them no choice. They subsequently so far 
followed the example of other colonies as to execute one if not two 
of the Narragansett under-Sachems as adherents of Philip, and to sell 
some of the captives, not as slaves for life, but as servants for a tc^vn 
of years.' To this sale some men who had been leaders in the liberal 
party agreed, but Gorton was not one of them; we never find him 
violating the unwavering principles of his character by engaging in 
so inconsistent an act.' 

The war was now at an end ; not a single free Narragansett remained 
in the country they had lately occupied. The Warwick settlers, from 
their exposed situation, had early' removed their stock and goods to 
Portsmouth ;' but their dwellings, all with the exception of one of stone, 
had been burned, every field had been laid waste, and the bridges as well 
as every other improvement destroyed; the people for the second time 
found a home on the island. Tradition says that Gorton was rowed 
by friendly Indians across the bay to a place of safety. Providence 
was burned, destroyed, only five houses remaining, and Pawtuxet also 
was burned ; and William Carpenter, one of the Pawtuxet partners, 
ex-subject of Massachusetts, who lived on land of Warwick, was 
despoiled of 200 sheep and 50 cattle, and two of his household were 
slain.'* 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Massachusetts court unable to longer delay obedience to the King's com- 
mands — They send Stouphton and Buckley to England — Rhode Island Assembly 
choose Danford and Baiiy, of Newport, as agents to England — Their departure 
delayed pending the suits of the Pawtuxet claimants — Trial of the Pawtuxan 
claims and verdict in their favor — Warwick men appeal, and resolve to carry 
a petition to England — Gorton, Greene and Holden again chosen to lay a peti- 
tion before His Majesty — Gorton's death — Greene and Holden depart immedi- 
ately with the petition — They procure from the King in council a stay of pro- 
ceeding? — A powerful petition — Its presentation by the Warwick men to the 
King — King orders the Massachusetts government to send other agents em- 
powered to negotiate a settlement and to repeal the obnoxious laws — They 
send Nowell and Richards — Quo-warranto issue summoning the corporation 
of Massachusetts to England — The Massachusetts charter pronounced void — 
King Charles the Second's death — Kins James' declaration under which the 
intolerant practices of the leagued colonies end. 

175. Baylie's Hist. Plymouth, Pt. 3, p. 136. Hubbard's Indian Wars. Disjointed 
fingers and toes of Narragansett prisoner. "Judge Durfee's Works. 

R. I. Rec. ii. 549. ^Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 419- Mackey's Life of 

Gorton. Gammel's TJfe of Williams, 140. R. I. Collec, v, 170. Most of the 
leaders of the liberal party opposed enslaving the captives ; we find Ralph Ear], 
a member of the 1639 Model Govt., actively opposing it. Portsmouth Rec, i, 
70. R. I. Collec, ii, 152 and note. Church's Indian Wars, Boston, 184S, p. 51. 
•Directly after the hanging of Poagonet. R. I. Rec, ii. 519- °R- I- Rec, 

ii, 533. "Austin's Allied Families, 58. Foster Papers, R. I. Rec, n, 

S56, etc Hubbard's Ind. Wars, 214. Church's Philip's War. Lands of R- 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 139 

Charles the Second had now for some time, at least since the time 
of the closing in 1667 of the work of his Commissioners, been absorbed 
with exciting questions at home to the unavoidable neglect of the colonies, 
during which interval, although the signification of his will respecting 
the bounds set by his Commissioners had been in some parts regarded 
by the Massachusetts Magistrates, his other wishes were not obeyed; 
and the Narragansetts, for whom he had undertaken to provide protec- 
tion, had been destroyed. But the continued complaints and urgent 
appeals to him from the neighboring colonies against the proceedings 
of the Massachusetts Bay rulers now awakened his renewed attention.* 
The Massachusetts Court, unable to longer delay in violation of the 
King's repeated commands" to send representatives to appear before 
him, on October 30th, 1676, sent Stoughton and Buckley to England.' 

The Rhode Island Assembly in May, 1677, chose Sanford and Baily, 
of Newport, agents to the government in England ;* but their departure 
was delayed pending the suits of the Pawtuxet claimants. 

Harris, having in the trials in behalf of the Pawtuxet claimants been 
unsuccessful, had in 1675 gone to England and laid a petition before 
the King. Harris petitioned for a commission of eight judges, two of 
whom should come from each of the four colonies of Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, assisted by a jury of 
twelve men, two of whom should come from Plymouth, four from 
Massachusetts, three from Connecticut and three from Rhode Island; 
and a royal order granting Harris' petition was issued. Plymouth, 
Massachusetts and Connecticut had been possessed of much more than 
one-half of the entire colony of Rhode Island and had claims enough 
set up to cover the whole, and Harris was at this time in league also 
with Connecticut, acting as her agent in England in urging her claims 
against the colony of Rhode Island. Harris was at the same time in the 
pay of Connecticut for advancing her claims to Narragansett ; of 
Plymouth for advancing her claims to Providence and Pawtuxet ; and 
of the Rhode Island government — the Newport Cabal — for advancing 
his own and his partners' claims to Providence and Warwick ; the 
Pawtuxet partners being willing that any government should have juris- 
diction that would aid them in possessing the soil. A bill from Harris 
for his services was presented to the court at Newport on October 
27th, 1662, and another for his service against the town of Warwick was 
presented to the court at Newport on November 17th, 1677.° Nine of 
the twelve jurymen came from Plymouth, Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut colonies. These colonies wanted jurisdiction over these lands. 
Rhode Island seemed doomed. This court prepared for business in 
Boston and then adjourned to meet November 17th, 1677, in Provi- 
dence. Four days later the jury rendered their verdict in favor of 
Harris, sustaining the claims of the Pawtuxet party to the whole 
northern and western portions of the colony west of the line of separa- 
tion from Providence, which was recorded by them in Boston, and 
placed the running of the line as requested by Harris upon the town of 
Providence. A delay was effected by Providence denying the line to 
be run. 

The Warwick people, alarmed both at the success of the Pawtuxans 
and the claims urged by Connecticut to the Narragansett dominion, on 
the 29th of November' resolved to, at their own expense (any of the 
other to_wns contributing to it thr.t chose to), send the former potent 

Island. 'Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, 187. 'Hutchinson's 

Papers, 210-510. 'Mass. Rec, v, 163. *R. I. Rec, ii, 580. 

"Preserved in the Mss. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 432-438. 'Arnold's Hist. 



140 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

agents of the colony' to lay a petition clearly reciting these causes to his 
Majesty for his determination. Gorton's death occurred on the loth 
of the next month, December, but Greene and liolden departed with 
the petition almost immediately thereafter. They were received by the 
King, as he had promised, with his most gracious favor, and forthwith 
procured from him in council a stay of the proceedings.' This order 
from the King, although not the final act, was nevertheless fatal to the 
claims of the Pawtuxans, for contemporary with this the political 
prestige of the party passed and Rhode Island was again saved from 
destruction. " Gorton and his companions triumphed at last. Rhode 
Island owes them a heavy debt."° 

The many orders of Parliament and of his royal hand and the express 
provisions of his charter, that the inhabitants of the Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations should have perfect freedom to pass and repass 
without let or molestation into the other colonies, and to hold inter- 
course with such of their people as were willing, " any act, clause or 
sentence in any of the said colonies provided or that shall be provided to 
the contrary notwithstanding," and his letter with it expressly calling 
the Governor and council of Massachusetts to it and requiring their 
obedience, had been by the Massachusetts rulers to this day unheeded. 
In the hearing before the King and council the Warwick men at once 
fell upon Massachusetts and the Massachusetts agents " with great 
severity in a petition, relating the facts of the case, exposing the falla- 
cies of their opponents, repelling their attacks upon the loyalty of Rhode 
Island and adducing record proofs of the disloyalty of Massachu- 
setts," concluding with a series of requests ; first, that a Supreme Court 
of jurisdiction over all the colonics might be erected in New England, 
whereby equal justice might be rendered, boundary disputes adjusted 
and civil war, which must otherwise result from " the oppression of 
an insulting and tyrannical government," might be averted; second, 
that the royal letter of 1666, confirming the acts of the Commissioners 
in behalf of Rhode Island, might be renewed; third, that Connecticut 
might be compelled to restore the town of Westerly taken from Rhode 
Island by force ; and lastly, that the decisions of Massachusetts against 
Warwick men, especially the decree of banishment against them, now of 
thirty-five years' standing, might be annulled. The original of " this 
masterly State paper, as conclusive as it is severe,"'" is filed in the 
Bristish State Paper Office.' It is not printed in the Rhode Island 
Historical Collection, although it should he, as it is the only one of 
Rhode Island's papers preserved that is a fitting reply to the apologetical 
reply of Massachusetts. Rhode Island does herself injustice by publish- 
ing in her collection, as she does, one without the other. 

The petition was accompanied by various documents corroborating 
the position advanced by its authors. These documents are not all 
filed with the petition, but are scattered among other papers in the 
same and other volumes in the British State Paper Oflfice. Reference 
is made to a letter in answer to Gorton's addressed to the King which 
cannot be found, unless one of the letters, April 27th, 1678, December 
13th, 1678, July 4th, 1679, and a peremptory order requiring the Massa- 

R. T., i, 434, 46.-!. 'Arnold's Hist., i, 4.U- 'Rider's R. I. IT. 

Tract, 2d Scr., No. 4. "Wm. D. Ely. John A. Howland, R. I. llist. 

Soc. Proceedings, 1887-88, 1890. Massachusetts owes him a heavy debt, for had 
the Providence Plantations been brouRht under their jurisdiction and the refu- 
gees surrendered to them, as they requested of Coddington, the early writers 
could not as they did justify all the disciplininp; acts, so great would have been 
their number. "Arnold's Hist., i, 446. 'New Eng. Papers, 

iii, 24-27. A portion of an address from Warwick men to King Charles the 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 141 

chusetts Magistrates to revoke the order of banishment is that to which 
reference is intended. 

On April 27th, 1678, the King addressed the Massachusetts Court 
a letter of rebuke and instructions ; among the latter that the oath of 
allegiance as established by law in England be administered to all of 
the proper age.^ 

The Warwick men, who in point of talent had few or no superiors 
in the colony, showed themselves fully competent for the most difficult 
labors of defense or negotiation, and were fully employed in the defense 
of the rights of the colony. The Newport agents remained at home. 
An advertisement, dated July 30th, 1678, and signed by Simon Brad- 
street and others of Boston, styling themselves a company to dispose 
of the Narragansett lands, was posted in Newport and other towns; 
and Connecticut had petitioned to tlie King for a part of the Narragan- 
sett territory. The Warwick men were called upon to answer the 
averment of the petitioners. This they did with signal ability. The 
printed advertisement to dispose of the Narragansett land was presented 
by them to the Royal Council, and an order was at once issued for 
the Massachusetts agents to appear and show upon what title the lands 
v;ere claimed. The Massachusetts Agents informed the Council that it 
was a private claim. This admission, together with the representation of 
Greene and Holden in answer to the Connecticut petition, was embraced 
in an order of council issued the same day requiring that notice should 
be sent to New England to leave King's Province in its present condi- 
tion, and that those who claimed ownership or jurisdiction there should 
forthwith send agents to prove their right before the King. The following 
week a peremptory order was issued mmulling the sentence of banish- 
ment that had been passed by the Massachusetts Court against the 
Warwick people thirty-five years before, and commanding the said 
court to repeal the same and to allow those persons, at all times, free 
access within their jurisdiction. The terms of the order were unusu- 
ally decided and indicate a strong feeling of condemnation in the 
Royal Council at the arbitrary conduct of Massachusetts toward the 
adherents of Gorton.^ 

This was a gratifying advance toward ending the occasion for the 
complaints of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations against 
Massachusetts and other colonies. The Warwick men were longer 
detained upon incidental matters of the colony, after effectually dispos- 
ing of which they returned home. The agents for the other colonies, 
not offering anything to induce their lordship to differ in opinion 
from that expressed in his order of December 13th, a decree was later 
issued declaring void all other than the Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations claims.* 

The services of the Warwick men to the colony were rendered 
gratuitious ; and they neither asked or received any payment for their 
passage to England nor maintenance while there. After their return, 
the government at Newport voted them £45, which they had paid on 
the colony's account in England, and £15, the amount of their passage 
home.° 

Second in 5th Mass. Collec, i, 505. Callender's Discourse, R. I. Collec, iv, 92, 
mentions the address of Gorton to King Charles the Second, presented in 1679. 
Chalmers' Annals, Book i, ch. viii, 197, 198 ; ix, 273. ^Hutchinson's 

Papers, 515, 516, or ii, 253. Mass. Rec, v, 193. Reference thereto in R. I. 
Rec, iii, 62. 'Arnold's Hist., i, 452, 493. R. I. Rec, iii, 18, t,7, 41, 

58, 60, 67. Original Pet. in British State Paper Office. New Eng. Papers, iii, 
49. Order upon it xxxii, 312, ante p. ^Arnold's Hist., i, 505. R. I. 

Rec, V, 370-373. ''Arnold's Hist., i, 447 note ; R. I. Rec, iii, 47. July, 



142 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

The Massachusetts agents returned with a letter from the King to the 
Massachusetts Magistrates bearing date July 24th, 1679,* with com- 
mands to send over other agents within six months from the receipt 
of the letter, empowered to negotiate a settlement, to repeal all laws 
that were contrary to the laws of England, requiring suitable obedience 
in respect to freedom ,and liberty of conscience, and appointing Edward 
Randolph a collector and surveyor for the colonies. Another letter 
on September 30th, 1680, commanded obedience to the former letter, 
and that the representatives to attend his Council be sent within three 
months from the reception of the present order.' This letter led to 
the calling of a special court, and Samuel Nowell and John Richards 
were elected as agents to England, according to the King's commands; 
but with power so restricted as to render them incapable of giving 
satisfaction, and a writ of qiio-zvarranto was issued June 27th, 1683, 
summoning the Corporation of Massachusetts Bay to defend their acts 
against the complaints and charges made against them; and judgment 
was entered the next year pronouncing their charter void.* 

The person selected by the King to govern the people of the provinces 
was Pusey Kirk, but before his commission and instruction were com- 
pleted all was delayed by the demise of King Charles, vv^hich took place 
the 6th of February, 1685. 

Dudley was commissioned by the new King as Governor, with instruc- 
tions to give universal toleration of religion. Dudley was within seven 
months superseded by Andros, with instructions of a more stringent 
character, which instructions he fulfilled to the letter. 

It is singular that toleration in Massachusetts should have been 
proclaimed by the arbitrary James in a declaration above and contrary 
to the law for which he received the thanks of the ministers of that 
colony, but which resulted in the loss of his crown in England.' 

James' Declaration _ of Indulgence was proclaimed 1687, and now 
for the first time Quakers, Baptists and Episcopalians enjoyed tolera- 
tion in Massachusetts. That system or religious tyranny, coeval with 
the settlement of New England, thus unexpectedly received its death- 
blow from a Roman Catholic, who professed a willingness to allow 
religious freedom to others as a means of securing it for himself." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Permanent return of Warwick people to their homes — The triumph of religious 
freedom and end of attempted subjugation of the Providence and Rhode Island 
lands and people — The adoption of their principles as the cardinal doctrine of 
the Nation — Closing events in Gorton's life — Honors accorded him — His char- 
acter and his teachings. 

It was in the spring of 1677, after the Indian war, that Gorton and his 
people again, and this time permanently, returned to Warwick, their 
home, a barren waste ; themselves, most of them, destitute of all earthly 
goods to start again, many of them now in their old age, at the foot, 

1679. 'Hutchinson's Papers, 519-522, or ii, 257-261. Letter in Ryer- 

son's Loyalists of Amer., i, 187-189 notes. 'Ryerson's Loyalists of 

Amer., i, 193, 194. Hutchinson's Papers, 522-525, or ii, 261-264. "Loyalists 

of America, i, 207-210. 'Loyalists of Amer., i, 216. "Hildreth's 

Hist, of the U. S. of America, ist Ser., ii, 109. 'Arnold's Hist, i, 192. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 143" 

the toiling rounds of life's ladder. With undaunted courage they set 
to rebuilding their dwellings. Yet suffering as they were from despolia- 
tion, few people were as happy as they who now enjoyed the triumph 
of the principles for which they had set apart their lives; unmolestedly 
laboring to rear for themselves comfortable abodes and surroundings, 
while worshipping God according to the dictates of their own con- 
sciences. 

In reviewing the efforts of Massachusetts to extend her jurisdiction 
and to attach to herself any residents of the Providence Plantations, 
and to lead the people in revolt against the charter, the claims of the 
other colonies and the great sufferings and trials that the people 
endured, the historian of Rhode Island says : " As we examine the 
progress of this deeply laid scheme and observe the steadiness with 
which it was pressed through a long series of years, we cannot but 
admire the firmness of our ancestors in foiling at every turn, nor can 
we fail to recognize the hand of a Supreme pov^^er in preserving a colony 
whose peculiar principles at first made it an object of aversion, and 
finally were adopted as the cardinal doctrine of a whole nation."^ 

On the 4th of June, 1677, Gorton was chosen to the Town Council of 
Warwick for the ensuing year, and his son Samuel was at the same time 
chosen Treasurer. On November 27th the father signed a deed of 
lands in the Narragansett country to his sons and his six daughters and 
their husbands ; and on Lhe 27th of November by another deed he 
divided the remainder of his estate among his three sons, Samuel, John 
and Benjamin. To Samuel for aid in supporting the family while 
he was absent in England he gives his homestead and library; he also 
committed to him the care of his mother, providing that she be main- 
tained with convenient housing and necessaries and that means should 
be furnished for her " recreation in case she desired to visit her 
friends.'" 

Before the close of the year, on or the days before the loth of 
December, the leader of these early struggling and liberty-loving people, 
Samuel Gorton, was called to his rest, he being eighty-five )fears of age. 
Ripe in years spent in good works, " always enjoying the confidence 
of his fellow-townsmen,"^ and " retaining to the close of his days the 
affectionate esteem of his fellows and fellow-citizens."^ " Gentle and 
sympathetic in private intercourse, generous and sympathetic in nature, 
he awarded to others the same liberty of thought and expression which 
he claimed for himself."* " He was universally beloved by all his 
neighbors and the Indians, who esteemed him not only as a friend, 
but one high in communion with God in heaven. Gorton was a holy 
man, wept day and night for the sins and blindness of the world ; his 
eyes were a fountain of tears and always full of tears; a man full of 
thought; had a long walk out through the trees or woods, where he 
constantly walked morning and evening, and even in the depth of night, 
alone by himself for contemplation."" In one of his last letters, that to 
Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, he mentions death with 
the request that it "be accompanied with a requiem at his departure, 
the burden of which should be this: 'that true Christian religion con- 
sists only in that wherein the soul of a believer continues still in com- 
munion with the Spirit of God in Christ, when the natural body is gone 
down to the grave.' "" 

-Warwick Records ; Austin's R. I. Genealog. Diet. ; Dr. Janes' " Samuel Gorton, 
a Forgotten Founder of Our Liberties." ^Chief Justice Staples' Int. 

to R. I. Collec, ii. Jared Sparks' Am. Biographies, ist Ser., xv. ^Oliver 

Payson Fuller. "Dr. Ezra Styles' acct. from the aged Mr. John Angel, 

R. I. Collec. •4th Ser. Mass. Collec, vii, 626. "Hon. Samuel 



144 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

" I have read almost every word that is legible of the records of the 
colony from its first settlement till after the death of Gorton. From the 
first establishment of the government he was almost constantly in 
office, and during a long life there is no instance of record to my knowl- 
edge of any reproach or censure cast upon him, no complaint against 
him, although history furnishes abundance of evidence that there was 
no lack of enemies to his person, principles or property. This can 
hardly be said of any other settler in the colony of any standing. It 
was this fact that fixed my opinion of the general tenor of his conduct 
and th.e uprightness of his character. I remember an instance in which 
he applied to be excused from serving in the Court of Commissioners, 
and assigned his long services as a reason. He constantly enjoyed 
the confidence of his fellow-townsmen and received from them the 
highest honors in their gift.'" " To the charge made against l.im by 
Morton he could truly as well as indignantly say: 'Whose ox or whose 
ass have I taken, or when or where have I lived upon other men's 
labors and not wrought with my ov/n hands for the things honest in 
the sight of men to eat my own bread?' None could gainsay him, 
although his reputation for morality as well as righteousness was laid 
broadly open and in the search for everything picked clean to the 
bone."^ "The whole tenor of his life shows that he was conscientious, 
sincere and in all matters of fact honest and truthful.'" " The com- 
munity in the midst of which he lived, trusted and honored him to the 
last, and few testimonials to integrity of character are better than 
this. It is a remarkable circumstance that he always retained the 
affection of his neighbors and friends. The few ' dissenting freemen ' 
of Warv.-ick never were his neighbors or friends, but were interloping 
enemies who followed him to Warwick to decry his virtues, to break 
up the settlement, to obtain his land. He generally succeeded in satis- 
fying the candid. That he must have been possessed of great and shin- 
ing virtues is sufficiently evident from the fidelity with which his 
early adherents followed through life his changing fortunes and by 
their never-failing confidence in his worthiness to fill public office 
of the highest trust and of the greatest importance to the general 
weal."" 

He was their chosen Representative to the Assembly in the years 
1649. 51. 52, 55. 56, 57. 58, 59» 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66; served a 
number of terms in the Upper House, corresponding to the present 
Senate; was Associate Judge of their highest court; and was their 
President or Governor for the term beginning in 1651 and ending in 
1652. He was a multitude of times selected to audit the accounts of the 
colony, to care for the Lord Admiral's letters and other highly-prized 
documents, and more than any other man in the colony called upon 
to draw up important State papers, many of these now unfortunately 
no longer extant; and his old age was continually honored by the gift 
of the most important civil offices.' 

Sidney S. Rider, whose knowledge of these early men, obtained 
from a lifelong study of their works, is not exceeded by anyone living, 
says that Gorton was " one of the most learned men then living in 
New England" (Lands of Rhode Island, 201). In the languages, in 
the law and in letters he was exceedingly proficient. His early asso- 
ciations good; his wife as tenderly reared as any lady in the colony: 
her family educated and refined; her brother a college president, an 

Eddy in 2d Ed. SavaRe's Winthrop. 'Bryant's Hist. United States, ii, 

68. "Col. Thos. Aspinwall in Remarks on Narragansett Patent. 

"Mackey. '2d Ed. Sparks' Am. Biog., Life of Samuel Gorton, v, 376. 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 145 

excellent Latin poet. And their family relations with Gorton and with 
one another appear to have been the best, they sending to him and to 
their daugther the herds of fine-bred cattle— among the first in the 
colony— for the pastures about his pioneer home. Mr. Rider in his 
forthcoming "Constitutional History of Rhode Island" will show that 
Gorton had no intellectual superior in New England ; and that in courage 
he was not less than sublime. To Samuel Gorton, for his work in sus- 
taining and preserving the charter and government, Wililam D. Ely 
says: "Rhode Island owes him a great debt." 

During the year 1667 he had declined to again accept a government 
office, he then being seventy-five years of age. The year preceding his 
death his eldest son, Capt. Samuel, was chosen a Representative, and 
served in the House and in the Senate to defend the now constitutionally 
established principles of soul liberty for sixteen successive years. Under 
the order of the King's Commissioners, that the Governor and his 
Assistants or Magistrates should rule in the Narragansett Province, 
the latter was one of the Magistrates to govern there, and was one of 
tl-.e Court of Justice who sat in the Province. He was selected to 
oversee the laying out and allotment of the lands of East Greenwich, 
" that it be fairly done," was one of those selected to answer the twenty- 
seven questions sent from the Lords of his Majesty's Privy Council to 
the colonies, and for many years served upon the committees who 
drafted the colonies' letters to the King. Samuel Gorton has been 
honored also in the persons of his other sons and numerous of his 
descendants. His sons John and Capt. Benjamin were among the 
founders of the town of East Greenwich, those to whom the colony 
granted five thousand acres of land. Capt, Benjamin was a Repre- 
sentative in both the House and Senate. Gorton's grandson, Othniel, 
also was a Representative, and Othniel. Jr., was for seven full terms 
a member of the General Assembly from Warwick, and in 1761, in 
connection with Stephen Hopkins and Job Bennett, Esquires, was 
directed to prepare a reply to the questions which had been proposed 
by the Lords Commissioners of the Plantations; was Speaker of the 
House in 1787, and the same year was one of a committee to draft a 
letter from the colony to the American Congress. In June, 1788, he 
resigned his position in the Assembly and became Chief Justice of the 
Superior Court, which position he retained until May, 1791.* " General 
Nathaniel Greene, next to George Washington, the most eminent mili- 
tary leader in the contest with Great Britain, traced his lineage directly 
to John Greene and Samuel Gorton, noble founders of the liberties 
which he fought to sustain; as did also Colonel Christopher Greene of 
Revolutionary fame. Albert Gorton Greene, a descendant of John 
Greene, Samuel Gorton and Randall Holden, three of the original 
settlers of Warwick, became a judge of the Municipal Court in the city 
of Providence, and is well known to three generations as the author 
of ' Old Grimes " and other popular ballads and poems. The late 
Governor Henry Lippitt and the recent Chief Magistrate of Rhode 
Island, the Hon. Charles Warren Lippitt, as well as the late Lieutenant 
Governor, Samuel G. Arnold, the historian of the State, and the present 
Lieutenant Governor, Lewis S. Chanler, of New York, and the present 
Bishop, Henry C. Potter, of New York, are direct descendants of 
Samuel Gorton.'" Among his descendants are several each of United 
States Senators, Members of Congress, Major Generals, Governors of 
States, Judges of Supreme Court, Senators and Assemblymen, Church 

R. I. Records. »R. I. Hist. Tract, No. lo. »Dr. Janes in 

Samuel Gorton, a Forgotten Founder of Our Liberties." 'Oliver 



146 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

Bishops, and I^Ioderutors, Renowned Alissionaries, Distinguished 
Authors, Etc., representing nearly every State and Territory in the 
Union. Some scores of his descendants served with honor and distinction 
in the early wars, the Revolution, the war of 1812 with Great -Britian, the 
Civil War, and in the United States Congress, and very many of his living 
descendants are eminent in literature and the professions. 

His published works are: "Simplicity's Defense," "Incorruptible 
Key," " Saltmarsh," " The Common Plagues," and "Antidote Against 
Pharisaical Teachings.." A Commentary on the Lord's Prayer was 
left by him in manuscript, unpublished. 

One does not find in his published works any detailed system of faith ; 
he did not attempt to build up a sect or claim anything new in revela- 
tion or Scripture interpretation. His religious opinions, if peculiar 
then, are no more so now than exists in any congregation. " The 
essential gospel truths as held by the great body of evangelical Chris- 
tians of the present day are those that were held and preached by him."* 
He made but small account of the forms of religious worship and laid 
not much stress upon most of the dogmas of theology ; a right temper 
of heart being in his view the one thing needful, and the union of the 
believer with Christ in love the great saving doctrine of revelation.** 
A thorough study of his theological writings by one well qualified for 
an understanding and proper comparison of their teachings with the 
various systems has been made by Dr. Janes, President of the Brooklyn 
Ethical Association, whose exposition of them and conclusions regard- 
ing them he has published in his " Life of Samuel Gorton," to which 
the reader is referred, from which by permission we briefly quote in the 
following. : " By far the best and most complete exposition of Samuel 
Gorton's religious convictions is to be found in a remarkable manuscript 
in his own handwriting which has never been published, but which 
is preserved in the library of the Rhode Island Historical Society in 
Providence. The manuscript to which I refer is a running commentary 
on the Lord's Prayer. I have examined many papers of contemporary 
and more recent dates, but with the exception of those left by his eldest 
son, Capt. Samuel Gorton, who was evidently instructed by his father, 
and whose handwriting resembles his so closely as to be distinguishable 
from it with difficulty. I have never seen any so clear, systematic and 
scholarly in appearance. When the reader has searched dilligently 
beneath the quaint and involved phraseology, bristling with scriptural 
references and illustrations, and come into sympathetic contact with the 
living thought of the writer, the surprising thing which is discovered 
is the remarkable modernness of many of Samuel Gorton's ideas. It 
goes without saying that he was not ' orthodox,' according to the con- 
ventional standard of his time, nor yet, perhaps, of our own; but we 
everywhere touch the personality of a vigorous and independent thinker, 
who in many directions foreshadowed the views of the advanced thinkers 
of a later day. Some of his enemies denounced Samuel Gorton as an 
atheist. He was as remote as possible from atheistic leanings. He was 
not even affiliated with the deism of his own and the succeeding century. 
His theology was profoundly Christian. The Scripture references to 
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit he interprets as recognitions of ' spirit- 
ual distinctions in the nature of Christ.' They are not separate persons 
of a godhead, but distinctions of the divine activity, having a unity 'not 
found elsewhere, but only in Christ.* 

" With Channing Samuel Gorton also taught the essential divinity of 
human nature — the equal nearness of the divine spirit to the sinner and 

Payson Fuller, Hist. Wk., 303. 'Incorruptible Key, 73. •Com- 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 147 

to the saint. He recognizes a divine spark in every human soul, and 
to this he made his appeal.' He also, however, accepted the eternal 
antagonism of good and evil as an unquestionable fact, both in scrip- 
tural teaching and in human experience. The tendency of the one is 
to eternal life; of the other to eternal death. He, therefore, taught a 
conditional immortality, wholly dependent upon the character of the 
individual. ' Neither can any salvation hold proportion with the son 
of God,' he says, ' but freedom from sin.' This saved him from the 
errors of Antinomianism.' The doctrine of imputed sin and imputed 
righteousness he denounces as unworthy of the divine character. * God 
was in Christ reconciling men unto himself, not imputing their sins.' 
Nor is this work of reconciliation limited to any historical period. 
' God is eternally a creator, eternally a redeemer, eternally a conservator 
of peace.' The substance of his teaching is that righteousness is life 
eternal ; sin is eternal death. There is no arbitrary penalty inflicted at 
the close of man's earthly career, or on some future day of judgment; 
it is the intrinsic and natural result of evil action." 

Mr. Gorton distinguished four distinct stages in the historical develop- 
ment of religious ideas: the family, the national, the apostolic, and the 
spiritual or universal. Considering the period in which he wrote, and 
the fact that the Bible seems to have been almost his only text book, 
his conclusions are remarkably consistent with those of modern students 
of sociology and comparative religion. 

The temptation is great to continue this line of exposition and quo- 
tation, but I must bring it to a close with one or two additional passages 
further illustrative of the ethical quality of his thought. All virtue, 
he taught, even the goodness of God, consists wholly in the service 
of others. " The goodness of God's nature is such," he says, " that it 
cannot subsist or be without communicating itself with another; other- 
wise his goodness should be useless, which cannot be admitted for one 
moment of time, for there is an impossibility thereof. The natural 
temporary or typical goodness of any creature is useless unless it be 
communicated with another; God never made any creature in heaven 
or in earth simply for itself, but for the use of another; how infinitely 
more is this true of God, who hath made himself in Christ to be the 
goodness of the world." 

With Theodore Parker, he taught that the entire creative energy was 
expressed in the divine nature, to conceive which as purely masculine 
was inadequate, anthropomorphic and irrational ; and in one of the most 
striking passages in his Commentary on the Lord's Prayer he argues 
for the equal recognition of woman in the church, as a teacher of 
religion. 

In philosophy Samuel Gorton was an original thinker, rather than 
a student of past systems. In theology he was far in advance of the 
prevailing thought of his time. Only a few of the minor sects of our 
own day have yet approximated to his views as to the equal position 
of woman in the pulpit and the church ; only an occasional strong and 
independent mind has reached his conception of religion as a birthright 
of the individual soul, to which belongs the inalienable privilege of 
investigation and interpretation, free from priestly mediation and secta- 
rian bias." 

Regarding the Holy Ordinances, such as Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper, he scorns the Massachusetts Elders' charge that he denied them 

mentary Mss., ii, 14, 57. 'Gorton was not a follower of Annie Hutch- 

inson. " His theology was original and peculiarly his own." Commentary 
Mss., 58, Dr. Janes, 97. "' Samuel Gorton, a Forgotten Founder of 

Our Liberties," by Dr. Janes. "Incorruptible Key Introd. 



148 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

because he could not join with them in their way of administering, 
and say : " We revere and practice them." Regarding the law, " Not 
scrupling," he says, " any civil ordinance for the education, ordering 
or governing of any civil State." Regarding magistracy, " Keep the 
office,," he says, " according to sobriety within the compass of civil 
things."' 

"Authority," he says, " cannot safely be entrusted to Magistrates if 
their place of office be not bounded within the compass of civil things." 
He argues clearly and logically in the introduction to his " IncorruptTble 
Key " that if Magistrates are permitted to extend their authority to 
things spiritual they are consistently bound to enforce their own con- 
victions of religious duty, and to persecute all who dissent therefrom. 
The only safety is in forbidding them " to intermeddle between God 
and the consciences of men; in this way only is the preservation and 
honor of all States in their several ways of rule and government.""' 

One-fourth of the whole number of the original purchasers of War- 
wick were members of the First Church organized by Roger Williams 
at Providence; and Ezekiel Holman, also a member, and two others, 
William Arnold and Stuckley Westcott, also members — jiist one-half 
of the original members of Williams' church were early settlers of 
Warzvick.^ The last two were early dissenters from Williams' church 
and continuous disturbers of the peace of the Providence settlers, as well 
as of the quiet Warwickers. All the others of these joined Gorton in 
support of the government and in unyieldingly resisting every effort 
of violence, compromise or arbitration to bring them under any authority 
that would deprive them of their civil rights or religious freedom. 
" There is no evidence of their interfering in the affairs of their neigh- 
bors, or cultivating any differences among themselves ; on the contrary, 
no community on the continent were more sedulous in courting the 
good will and confidence of the natives and none practiced more 
forbearance and endurance under trials, such as are rarely paralleled."' 

It was within the short time of six months from the final return of the 
Warwickers, not more than a dozen of them, to their lands which were 
divested by the war of all improvements, in which short time they could 
not have erected more than three or four dwellings, that Gorton's 
death occurred. There had not been, therefore, an opportunity for the 
establishment of a church there before his death. For about five months 
only from the completion of the first dwelling was a meeting-house 
here provided him, wherein he conducted religious service, attended 
by the few Episcopalians, Quakers or Baptists, not a sufficient number 
of whom could agree to any one system for the organization of such 
a church.' Cotton Mather said of them that he could not learn they 
" were agreed or any one principal so much as this, that they were to 
give one another no disturbance in the exercise of religion."* They 
were stigmatized by their opponents, as also they " that crieth out much 
against them that putteth people to death for witches."" At this time 
" all professed to believe in witchcraft, excepting only those few enlight- 
ened philosophers who were branded as impious atheists.'" 

Gorton's advanced position upon the question of human slavery is 
here worthy of attention. It superseded by about one hundred years 

^'Incorruptible Key, Rhode Island, 1645, Introduction. Samuel Gorton, Preston & 
Rounds, Publishers, Providence. 'Fuller's Hist. Warwick, 298. 

'Dr. Henry E. Turner. 'Not until about fifty years after Gorton's 

death, in about 1725, was any denominational society, and that the Baptist, 
able to organize a church nt \Varwick. ''Cotton Matlier in Maq-nali, ii, 

449. 'Wm. Arnold's letter, ante p. 'Pref. to OfFor's Ed. 

Increase Mather's Remarkable Providences. 'Dorr's Controversies with 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 149 

other like legislation upon the subject. His treatment of the Quakers 
also may be alluded to as an illustration of his practical love of freedom. 
Although differing with them and strenuously opposing what he con- 
ceived to be their errors, he defended their rights and gladly gave them 
shelter. 

"After the venerable founder of Providence," says his biographer, 
" no man was more instrumental in establishing the foundation of equal 
civil rights and soul liberty in Rhode Island than Samuel Gorton." In 
his letter to Clark for presentation to the Lord Protector, Cromwell, 
he writes " to plead our cause in such sort as we may not be compelled 
to exercise any civil power over men's consciences, so long as human 
orders in point of civility are not corrupted and violated." 

He was possessed of more literary education than any of the founders 
save Williams. In law and politics he understood his rights better than 
did the Elders and Magistrates of Massachusetts; and he at all times 
showed the courage of his convictions, and he appeared to have asserted 
no propositions which he could not legally maintain.' Samuel G. Arnold 
regarded him as " one of the most remarkable men who ever lived.' 
His astuteness of mind and Biblical learning made him a formidable 
opponent of the Puritan heirarchy. By his bold example, by his written 
and spoken word he did much that should make his name ever freshly 
remembered by the friends of civil and religious liberty throughout 
the wide world.* 

Dr. Janes says : " No portrait or adequate description of this tor- 
gotten Founder of our Liberties has been handed down to our time. 
The writer of his brief biography tells us that ' his bearing was court- 
eous, his feelings lively, his mind vigorous and well informed.' From 
such' hints as we may obtain from various sources we may picture him 
as a man of tall stature, marked features and gentlemanly address; 
blue-eyed — a typical Saxon; of an earnest and sympathetic nature; 
persuasive of speech in conversation and exhortation, and freely empha- 
sizing his thoughts with appropriate gestures; quick to resent injustic, 
and bold in his denunciation of wrong-doers ; more eloquent and effective 
in his spontaneous utterances and unstudied efforts than in the formal 
and labored style of his written treatise." 

Judge Brayton says he was "a man of independent spirit, having a 
character for truth and honesty, for morality, for courtesy to all and 
for Christian charity; a quick sense of justice, earnest in the defense 
of the rights of others as well as of himself, whose boast it was that 
he never laid his hands in violence upon any human being, not even 
upon his children." 

Bryant says he was sympathetic and affectionate, and with all he was 
frank and above suspicion, his purity and sincerity unquestioned. 

The Boston Transcript in a recent article refers to him as " the sturdy 
Rhode Islander" and "a noble-minded patriot and thinker."^ No leader 
of any of the reform movements has inspired his followers with a higher 
degree of trust, confidence and affection. 

Chief Justice Durfee, in a discoure before the Rhode Island Historical 
Society, said: "Samuel Gorton, the chief man of the settlement of 
Shawomet, was a person of the most distinctive originality of character. 
He was a man of deep, strong feeling, keenly alive to every injury, 
though inflicted on the humblest of God's creatures. He was a great 
lover of soul liberty and hater of all shams. He was a learned map, 
self-educated, studious, comtemplative. a profound thinker, who, in 
his spiritual meditation amid ancient Warwick's primeval groves, wan- 

the Freeholders. 'John M. Mackey. 'John M. Mackey. 



150 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

dered off into infinite and eternal realities, forgetful of earth and all 
earthly relations. He did indeed clothe his thoughts at times in clouds, 
but then it was because they were too large for any other garment. 
No one, who shall rivet his attention upon them, shall fail to catch 
some glimpse of giant limb and joint and have some dim conception of 
the colossal form that is enshrouded within the mystic envelopment. 
Yet in common life no one was more plain, simple and unaffected than 
Gorton. That he was courteous, affable and eloquent his very enemies 
admit, and even grieviously complain of his seducing language. He 
was a man of courage, and, when aroused, no hero of the Iliad ever 
breathed language more impassioned or effective. Nothing is more 
probable than that such a man, in the presence of the Massachusetts 
Magistrates, felt his superiority and moved and spoke with somewhat 
more freedom than they deemed suited to their dignity. Far more 
sinned against than sinning, he bore adversity with heroic fortitude; 
and if he did not conquer, he yet finally baffled every effort of his 
enemies. The misfortunes and annoyances to which he was subjected 
exceeded in severity and duration that of any other of the prominent 
settlers of the colony, and through it all he bore himself in a manner 
that commands our admiration." 

The house that Gorton erected, and where he lived the nine months 
before he was taken captive to Boston, is supposed to have been shortly 
after destroyed. The house which he, upon his return from England 
and return to Warwick in 1648, erected and in which he lived until the 
King Philip's war in 1675, was, with every other there, destroyed. The 
house built and occupied by him during the few summer months between 
the time of his last return there and his death was about two miles 
distant from the first-mentioned spot. It lay at the head of a small 
cove which winds its way through pleasant meadows, a little distance 
inland from what was formerly called Cowesett, now Greenwich Bay. 
The house faced the water and had a southwestern exposure, whereby 
it was fanned in summer by refreshing breezes from the sea and was 
visited in winter by the warm air, fabled to blow from the Indian 
heaven. In other directions gently sloping hills sheltered it from tb.e 
inclemencies of a northern climate; a prattling brook, still skirted with 
the rem.ains of ancient elms, ran hard by, down the gradual declivity 
into the cove; and on both sides were spread out ample fields, the 
fertility of whose soil must have annually clothed them with variegated 
beauty, and the golden rewards of labor. No fairer spot can be found 
upr-n the Narra.q-ansett shores; none within whose quiet, sunny solitude 
the founder of Shawomet could better have spent the tranquil evening 
of his eventful and much harrassed life. Also upon the rising ground 
in the vicinity his aged eyes were often gladdened with the sight of 
the pleasant shores and placid waters of the bay and its numerous 
islands, of Mount Hope in the distance, of the heights of Providence 
in the north, and of the line of ocean glittering in sunlight on the 
southern horizon. Tradition says that part of the timbers and stone 
of Gorton's house are still preserved in the dwelling which stands near 
the site of the ancient household, and which is now inhabited by some 
of his descendants. It also points to the family burying-ground, lying 
a short distance in the rear of the house, as the place, " now without 
overarching tree or mound," where the hoary patriarch was interred. 
But the exact spot where his ashes repose is marked by no pious stone 
or monumental marble. Yet if without other honors, may it at least 
ever be their privilege to sleep beneath the green sward of a free 
State.* 



APPENDIX I. 

The first published account of the treatment of Gorton while on the 
island was by an English clergyman named Lechford, who passed some 
time in Massachusetts, but not in Rhode Island, and who, in the company 
of Hugh Peters, Thomas Weld, William Hibbins and John Win- 
throp, Jr., all Massachusetts agents, on August 3d, 1641, "loosed from 
Boston," in his book " Plain Dealings," issued from London, Eng., 
November i6th, 1641, in the words following: "There lately they 
whipped one Master Gorton, a grave man, for denying their power and 
abusing some of their Magistrates with uncivil terms. The Governor, 
Master Coddington, saying^ in court, you that are for the King lay hold 
on Gorton, and he again on the other side called forth, all you that 
are for the King lay hold on Coddington. Whereupon Gorton was 
banished from the island; so with his wife and children he went to 
Providence." On the page with this he tells us that deer in New 
England are " as big as some lions," that " barley there is inferior to 
the product in England," and that "beans also there are very good." 
" In many passages," writes Cotton, " Plain Dealings might be called 
false and fraudulent;" and he probably does not mean the ones refer- 
ring to the Massachusetts products. [3d Series Mass. Collection, iii, 
55, 397; Cotton's Wavs of Cong. Churches Cleared, 71; Narragansett 
Club Papers, ii, 219,' note.] The second published account was by 
Winslow in 1646-7 in that part of his book Winthrop's Book of News 
in full, edited and improved. It is the anonymous account. The book 
contains also a copy of William Arnold's letter, a copy of Benedict 
Arnold's petition, a copy of the alleged letter of Roger Williams, and 
a copy of the paper drawn up for Winslow's use m England, called 
" The sum of the presentment of the grand jury " against Gorton, 
by Coddington. A portion of what appears to have been Wmthrops 
Book of News, including copies of portions of the Island Records which 
were " over the secretary's hand," and Coddington's letter naming some 
of the messengers who secured them, and calling attention to what 
Peters had written in, was published by Charles Dean, so lately as 
i8so with a companion article by himself, in which he unfairly ignores 
the fact that Gorton was one of the leaders and Magistrate m the 
Portsmouth government in 1639 and was still a Magistrate m 1644-1645 
when Brown visited him. Dean also ignores the official records of 
certain events that are proof contrary to the drift of his reasoning. 

APPENDIX II. 

The paper " The sum of the presentment of the grand jury " was a 
fabulous writing of Coddington's, conceived by him in spite and for 
Winthrop's and Winslow's use to aid them in their fight against Gorton 
and the Williams charter in England. There is not any mention of a 
trial verdict, sentence or punishment of Gorton at any time in the 
records or in the copies of them which Coddington " furnished over the 
secretary's hand" to Winthrop and his agents. Up to the time of 
Coddington's reassumption of rule at Portsmouth, himself, the Judge 
and the Elders decided all complaints; he had no grand jury or petit 
jury [Mar. 10-12, 163Q-40; July, 1640; R. I. Reeds., i. 98, 103.] Under 
Hutchinson's government, the first to inaugurate regular courts, dispense 
with Elders and provide a jury, the Governor and his Assistants decided 
whether any complaints should be brought to the public courts. [Apr. 

151 



152 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 

30, 1639; Rec. i, 71.] Upon Coddington's reassumption he and his 
Elders ordered his courts to consist of Magistrates and jury, as organ- 
ized by the Hutchinson government [Rec. i, 103], and further following 
their example, dropped the titles of Judge and Elders for that of Gov- 
ernor and Assistants invested with the office of Justice of the Peace, 
according to the law " that the Hutchinson government had adopted " 
[Rec. i, 100, loi]; but later Coddington and his court, heedless of the 
law and their agreement, ordered their court (Mar. 16-17, 1641-2) "to 
be held according to the ancient form and custom [Ante, p. — ], former 
orders contrary herewith made void," and Coddington again attempted 
with Elders to call any court either general or sessions. [Rec. i, 123.] 

Under Coddington the Sergeant [Rec. i, 65] or Secretary [Rec. i, 
95, 96] was required to receive complaints and commend them to the 
Judge and Elders [Jan. 29, 1639-40; Rec. i, 103, 106, 124] ; and Codding- 
ton disposed with even this shortly. [Rec. i, iii, 123.] No such form 
as a Presentment or Indictment was practiced or understood at this 
time — the summer of 1640 — by Coddington and his court on Aquidneck 
Island under the Pentateuchal system. There were Coroners and 
Inquest Juries appointed to inquire into the manner of violent death ; 
but no court practice or provision for a Grand Jury for Indictment or the 
finding of a bill of particulars of complaints against the offenders to 
be presented to the court with the offenders for trial. The regular 
method of procedure was much like that before a Justice of the Peace 
or our Police Courts to-day, and this was all that was required in that 
sparsely settled village of less than seventy-five male inhabitants, where 
the court was comfortably held in the small room of some settler's 
little log dwelling. In Connecticut, while trial by jury was practiced 
early [Conn. Rec. i, 84, 90], the Grand Jury for Indictment was not 
adopted till September, 1643 [Conn. Rec. i, 91, 93], and there was no 
Grand Jury for Indictment in Rhode Island until the adoption of the 
code for the government under the 1643-4 charter. The minutes of 
appointments of some kind are inserted with the erroneous editorial date 
of 1643 iri the Bartlett records. They don't belong there; the men 
named in the appointments were not residents or freemen at that time, 
and not till many years after. The correct time and date of this was 
not before the Code, and after this not until in 1648 was the first Grand 
Jury for indictment called or required. [May and June, 1648; Rec. i, 
209, 211.] With the Code was the process first provided that an accused 
or suspected person should be the subject of an inquest by a Grand 
Jury or a bill of counts of Indictment presented to the court for his 
trial. 

APPENDIX III. 

From the time of Samuel Gorton's return from England to the colony, 
1648, until the time when Newport, outstripping the other towns in 
population and political influence, controlled the affairs of the colony, 
the records of his public life [even without the records of his Presi- 
dential term, 1651, which records were destroyed] show that there 
was no man in the colony more popular or given more honor, and that 
he was habitually placed on important legislative Committees, serving 
on more of them than any other person, where a knowledge of law and 
superior literary skill was required. The compiler of the printed 
Colonies Records has indexed to Gorton but a fraction of the Committees 
on which the records show he served, while others who the records show 
served on less than he are indexed on many more; and, too, the favored 
ones have their Committees named, while if they are indexed to Gorton 



PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 153 

at all they are indexed by only the meaningless numerals of the page. 
Others on Committee with Gorton and to write to Cromwell and Clark 
are indexed to indicate it, while Gorton is not; and, agam, where Gorton 
is on Committee to write to Clark, he is not indexed on it at all. Begin- 
ning with Gorton's and Williams' appointment on Committee to write 
letters to Cromwell and Clark [beginning here because the records of 
Gorton's services preceding this are too nearly all destroyed to fairly 
compare with his contemporaries' records] from this appointment. 
Vol. i, p. 321, to the end of the volume, Gorton served on fourteen 
Comniittees, while nine were the most upon which service was rendered 
by the next most popular citizen. These are but a few of the many 
omissions of the records' compilers. The living disloyal ones of the 
State are, as of old, natural policticians, and succeed in obtaining places 
on the Committees selected for public work. The General Assembly 
recently printed, at the cost to the State, a pamphlet setting forth that 
Benedict Arnold, not Roger Williams, was the author of Sou Liberty, 
r Report, p. 30, 1901; Reply, Book Notes, Vol. 20, No. 7.] Will some 
such loyal State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation man as 
were Judge Brayton, Judge Staples and Judge Durfee, and are William 
D Ely and Sidney S. Rider, write a history of the State. No proper 
truthful history of the State has ever been published. It is in justice 
due from the Legislature to its people that it places in all the important 
libraries of the United States a proper history of the State; tor at 
this late day few libraries contain any other books of this history 
than those by the old antagonistic writers. 



APPENDIX IV. 

The Deeds usually referred to as Wills : . t ,. 

I Samuel Gorton, with respect to the great affection I bear to my son- 
in-laws and daughters, do fully give to them all right, etc in that neck 
of land in Narragansett which was given unto Mr. Randall Holden and 
myself and do grant unto son Daniel Cole and daughter Maher one- 
sixth part (Also one-sixth) to son John Sanford and daughter Mary, 
son William Mace and daughter Sarah, son John Warner and daughter 
Anna son John Crandall and daughter Elizabeth, son Benjamin Barton 
and daughter Susannah, the bounds thereof being more largely ex- 
plained in the deed bearing date May 27, 1659. ^ 

Signed and sealed November 2-], 1677, in Warwick. 

Witnesses. 

JOHN GREENE, Assistant, 

RANDALL HOULDON, ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ 3^ 

For good will, etc.-To son Samuel Gorton, Jr., being enlarged the 
more upon my mind by reason of his being instrumentally a g^eat sup- 
port un?o me to help bring up my family when my ^^-^^l^^^^rHrhf; 
etc • unto whom also I commit the care of my beloved wife during her 
widowhood, if she live to be a widow, and appoint that she shall be 
maintained &c.; also to have somewhat convenient for recreation in 



154 PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 

case she desire to visit her friends . . in consideration of the prem- 
ises, to said son Samuel all right to my house and lot in Warwick, 
with appurtenances ; and, further, my right in township of Warwick . . 
and a patch of marsh which is mine, for maintaining the widow Eliza- 
beth Moore in her lifetime and for the charges of her decent burial. 
Also to son Samuel aforesaid one-third of my right of purchase be- 
yond township of Warwick, having given other two-thirds to sons John 
and Benjamin. 

I freely pass over all said lands as specified in the premises unto said 
son Samuel as well as the goods, moveables and chattels, and also my 
Library, together with all my deeds and writings. 

In witness whereof, etc., I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 
27th day of November, 1677, Warwick. 

SAMUEL GORTON [L. S.]. 

Signed and sealed in presence of 
JOHN GREENE, Assistant. 
RANDALL HOULDON. 




THE ONLY HOUSE STANDING IN WARWICK IN 1677 

The stone house and fortress, built in 1649, by President John Smith. It, after his death in 1664, 
passed from his widow's family, the Sweets, to Thomas Greene, who occupied it, and whose descend- 
ants lived in it for many generations, and who were from this styled the Stone Castle Greenes. This 
house and the house of Samuel Gorton which was built by him during the summer of 1677, were probably 
the only completed houses that were in Warwick at the time of Samuel Gorton's death, in Decem- 
ber. 1677. 



OCT 7 



1901 



1%'^'^ 






; /,. 






^A^ 



v^-^ 












LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0014 111 1437 ^ 










